Colorful Chrysanthemum

Zhou Bichu, one of the first generation of Chinese artists to study in France, was known for his intense colour contrasts and his fusion of traditional Chinese landscape dotting techniques with the Pointillist methods of the West. In his 1940s work Colourful Chrysanthemum, he abandoned the perspective of Western oil painting, dividing the canvas into three rectangular colour blocks with the vase set along the boundary between them. Varied in colour and form, the chrysanthemums break the strict geometry of the background, while brushstrokes, unrestrained yet refined, imbue the work with both quiet grace and lively spirit, uniting structure and color in richness and harmony.