October 19, 2026–February 18, 2027
In 2028, the China Academy of Art will celebrate its centenary. On October 19, 2026, one of the Academy’s major centennial academic projects, The Radiance of All Things: A Retrospective of Chu Teh-Chun, opens at the Art Museum of China Academy of Art. The Art Museum of China Academy of Art and Foundation CHU Teh-Chun are the curatorial institutions. The associate organizers are the Consulate General of the Republic of France in Shanghai, Institut français de Pékin, the China Cultural Center in Bern, China Arts and Entertainment Group Ltd. (CAEG), and Christie’s.
Chu Teh-Chun was a distinguished alumnus of the China Academy of Art and a Chinese-French artist renowned around the world. In 1935, he was admitted to the National Hangzhou Academy of Art and began his artistic journey by West Lake. In 1955, he went to France for further study, pursuing a path of deep exploration within the tradition of Western abstract painting. In 1997, he was elected a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, becoming the first Chinese member in its more than 200-year history. In 2001, he received the insignia of Chevalier of the Legion of Honour from French President Jacques Chirac. By bringing the spirit of Eastern art into Western abstraction, Chu forged a lyrical form of abstract painting imbued with the landscape sensibility of Chinese art. He became a landmark figure in the history of cultural exchange between China and France, and his artistic achievement stands as a monument to the mutual enrichment of the two civilizations.
The words “Radiance of All Things” bring together two ideas: “radiance” evokes the imagery of light in Western art, while “all things” is rooted in the Eastern view of the cosmos. Together, they point to a transcendent light that reaches beyond East and West and speaks to a universal spirit. The exhibition brings together approximately 260 significant works and archival materials from across Chu Teh-Chun’s life, including 107 of his oil paintings.
On the occasion of the exhibition’s opening, the family of Chu Teh-Chun donated 57 significant works by the artist to the China Academy of Art, together with a sculpture by Albert Féraud, a lifetime member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, from Chu Teh-Chun’s own collection. The donation further enriches the Academy’s holdings and research concerning Chu Teh-Chun’s art and creative practice, adds an important collection to the Academy’s centennial history, and deepens the study of the trajectory of twentieth-century Chinese modern art.
Yu Xuhong, President of the China Academy of Art, Director of the Art Museum of China Academy of Art, and curator of the exhibition, said “For him, West Lake in Hangzhou was a spiritual point of origin, engraved deep in his heart and never forgotten.”
The exhibition is arranged in six sections: “First Inspirations amid West Lake and Mountains,” “Nature in Mist,” “Aura of Light and Colour,” “Cosmos in Transformation,” “Companions of a Century,” and “The River of Life.”
On the occasion of the exhibition’s opening, the family of Chu Teh-Chun donated 57 significant works by the artist to the China Academy of Art, together with a sculpture by Albert Féraud, a lifetime member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, from Chu Teh-Chun’s own collection. The donation further enriches the Academy’s holdings and research concerning Chu Teh-Chun’s art and creative practice, adds an important collection to the Academy’s centennial history, and deepens the study of the trajectory of twentieth-century Chinese modern art.
The exhibition will remain on view through February 18, 2027.
