Sculptuur Stephen Chung

Dimension: 91x50x5cm
An excellent example of decorative wall sculpture dating to the 1970s, by artist and maker Stephen Chun. Chun studied at art school in Taipei, graduating in the late 1960s. He was keenly interested in metalwork. He moved back to his native Hong Kong and started producing a series of Brutalist sculptural works in the early 1970s. He worked with stainless steel, copper and brass, folding and treating them with various tools, torches, bits, punches and etching solutions before molding them over plywood forms and creating assemblages. He mounted these on larger, thin sheets of metal fixed over plyboard. In this way he was able to form an endless array of abstract patterns. No two of his works are the same, but his production was prolific. He was represented at Gallery Hawaii in Honolulu, and in Taiwan and Hong Kong by two as yet unknown galleries (research is ongoing). His work was very popular with Australian tourists to Hong Kong in the 1970s and similarly so with US visitors from the mainland to Hawaii. Australia, Taiwan and the USA have therefore emerged as the key markets in which his work is being newly appreciated. Each work is unique but clearly recognizable, due to his distinctive style and method. This makes his works, which are usually unsigned, easily identifiable and rather collectable Chun's work is just now gaining recognition and the appreciation it deserves as part of the Brutalist architectural and decorative movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Keen admirers of Brutalism and owners of 1970s homes have been collecting them for years. His works are something to watch out for - we predict a lot of interest as this artist becomes better known.