Walasse Ting

WALASSE TING (Shanghai, China, 1929 – New York, U.S., 2010).
“Two Geishas Next to a Green Horse” and “Three Geishas and a Magenta Horse,” 1981.
Pair of lithographs, P.P. prints.
Signed, dated, and numbered by hand.
Measurements: 45 x 60 cm.

In this pair of lithographs, Walasse Ting displays his characteristic artistic language, defined by chromatic intensity and the balance between gestural lines and broad swaths of color. The composition reveals a clear influence from the Chinese painting tradition, particularly in the spontaneity and expressiveness of the line, as well as in a conception of space that dispenses with Western perspective and favors a freer, more evocative representation of nature. The drawing, which appears spontaneous yet is carefully crafted, evokes traditional ink painting, while the application of large fields of pure color introduces a contemporary and personal dimension. The result is a work that naturally synthesizes the Eastern artistic heritage and the chromatic sensibility of modern Western art—one of the most distinctive features of Ting’s body of work.

Ting, a Chinese artist and poet, studied briefly at the Shanghai Academy of Art before leaving China in 1946 to move to Hong Kong, where he exhibited some of his watercolors at a local bookstore. In 1950, he traveled to France and eventually arrived in Paris with no money, friends, or place to stay. He lived as a bohemian artist for six years, absorbing the city’s artistic styles and exhibiting for the first time works in which he incorporated elements of Western art, drawing particularly on the Expressionist movement and the works of Picasso. In 1958, Ting arrived in New York just as the Abstract Expressionist movement was reaching its peak. Unlike in Paris, his work achieved significant artistic recognition. At that time, his paintings were primarily poetic abstractions influenced by the aesthetic patterns of traditional Chinese artists. It was in the 1970s that Ting developed his most distinctive style, using Chinese calligraphic brushstrokes to define contours and fill flat areas of color with vividly colored acrylic paint. After more than 20 years in New York, Ting moved to Amsterdam, where he had a spacious studio in which he continued to work until 2002, when he suffered a serious illness that forced him to withdraw from the art world. In 1970, he was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship for his drawings. Today, his works are represented in major art institutions such as the Tate Gallery in London, the Metropolitan Museum and the Guggenheim in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Hong Kong Museum of Art, and other collections around the world.