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Lot Essay
"My heart is a flower that is blooming on the canvas. A brilliant work of art should arouse such power to give vivacity to those who are lifeless."
-Excerpt from Walasse Ting's letter to his family on 30 May 1971, New York City.
Colour Deconstruction and Reconstruction
At once a painter, sculptor and poet, Walasse Ting had travelled every corner of the world in search of aspirations. Born in Jiangsu in 1929, Ting was raised in Shanghai during its glamorous 30s. He was a drifter, having lived variously in Hong Kong, Paris, New York and Holland. His journeys were transformed into the multifarious colours on his paintings, enriched by infinite possibilities. The retrospective exhibition "Walasse Ting: The Flower Thief", held at the Cernuschi Museum in October last year, evidenced the notable international appeal of the late artist. The postwar period saw a multitude of art movements rising across the world. At the time, artistic sensibilties evolved with social unrest, as artists offered authentic works responding to various cultural contexts. Meanwhile, they all strove to move away from accepted artistic norms, seeking an unbridled artistic freedom beyond the convention. In the 1970s, Walasse Ting, Sam Francis and Joan Mitchell held a joint exhibition at the Carnegie Institute's Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, named by Walasse Ting 'The Fresh Air School' (Fig. 1). Drawing from their appreciation of the opulence in nature, the three broke away from pictorial constraints to increase room for experiment and to explore spontaneous compositions. As a practitioner of a movement which entails individualized expressivity, Walasse Ting kept in pace with the avant-garde movements of the same period, namely, 'The Gutai Group' in Japan and 'Art Informel' in France.
Experiment of Abstract Art
Under the influence of the CoBrA group and the Abstract Expressionist, Walasse Ting's early works were enhanced with action-painting-style splatters and drips. Ting adapted the involuntary actions of automatic painting, creating on his anvases an amalgamation of strokes in such boldness and density. Rather idiosyncratic in his own artistic trajectory, Ting began primarily as an abstract painter, yet his later work gravitated towards figuratism, which extracted the essence of an object. Executed in 1959, Untitled (Lot 461) evokes a strong Oriental ambience by using Chinese ink. The painting alternates between the codified traditions of calligraphic painting and the Western pictorial theory, combining the powerful spontaneity of calligraphy with Western colours and composition. Another of his earlier works, painted in 1964, Untitled (Lot 460) has witnessed a change in his application of colours. Planes of glaring acrylic paint dabbled with a Chinese brush, brought about intense visual vibrations; the spontaneity of action, at once evokes the immediacy and emotions of Joan Mitchell's paintings (Fig. 2). Ting's frenzy drips and splattering of paint showcased his unbridled passion and vitality, as they confront the viewer with a daring brilliance (Fig. 3).
The Vivid Colours of Life
Known for his singular use of striking colours, Walasse Ting had created a stylistically diverse body of work in New York, which was dominated by improvisation and experimentation. Both completed in the 70s, Small Flowers (Lot 459) and Rainbow Passing Shower (Lot 459) share a desire to depict nature in all its serenity with wild, dynamic brushworks and freely dancing colours. The works of the famous Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt are also interpreted with the attempt to reconcile with the natural world. The Sunflower is unusual in Klimt's paintings of nature as it contains a certain anthropomorphic element - the contours of a woman's body disguised in floral shapes. Whereas, Ting reverted to lush colours and outlines to express his emotions, his paintings devoid of mere observation of the scenes in nature. His allusive works are justified with the formalist interaction of support structure, to express the human psyche on an instinctual level. One could see art itself as the means to transcend objectivity and achieve spiritual elevation in a pure aesthetic sense. In Butterflies, Bees, Quick Come Take My Honey (Lot 457) and Woman with Fruits (Lot 458), Walasse Ting had dissolved his utmost emotions into pure colours and fluid lines. The bodies of women were deliberately laid to display facets of the feminine allure, often seem to be lost in the artist's reverie. Ting was for a time one of Roy Linchtentein's neighbors, and became well-acquainted with celebrated artists such as Andy Warhol and Tom Wesselman (Fig. 5). Under the influence of the New York art circle, he has cultivated a distinctive style that traversed the movements of the East and West. The artist once said, "I want to use different colours to express my inner feelings and emotions in my paintings." Walasse Ting's paintings resonated with boundless energy; while his fascination with colour, has made his work the most authentic expression of his inner world.
-Excerpt from Walasse Ting's letter to his family on 30 May 1971, New York City.
Colour Deconstruction and Reconstruction
At once a painter, sculptor and poet, Walasse Ting had travelled every corner of the world in search of aspirations. Born in Jiangsu in 1929, Ting was raised in Shanghai during its glamorous 30s. He was a drifter, having lived variously in Hong Kong, Paris, New York and Holland. His journeys were transformed into the multifarious colours on his paintings, enriched by infinite possibilities. The retrospective exhibition "Walasse Ting: The Flower Thief", held at the Cernuschi Museum in October last year, evidenced the notable international appeal of the late artist. The postwar period saw a multitude of art movements rising across the world. At the time, artistic sensibilties evolved with social unrest, as artists offered authentic works responding to various cultural contexts. Meanwhile, they all strove to move away from accepted artistic norms, seeking an unbridled artistic freedom beyond the convention. In the 1970s, Walasse Ting, Sam Francis and Joan Mitchell held a joint exhibition at the Carnegie Institute's Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, named by Walasse Ting 'The Fresh Air School' (Fig. 1). Drawing from their appreciation of the opulence in nature, the three broke away from pictorial constraints to increase room for experiment and to explore spontaneous compositions. As a practitioner of a movement which entails individualized expressivity, Walasse Ting kept in pace with the avant-garde movements of the same period, namely, 'The Gutai Group' in Japan and 'Art Informel' in France.
Experiment of Abstract Art
Under the influence of the CoBrA group and the Abstract Expressionist, Walasse Ting's early works were enhanced with action-painting-style splatters and drips. Ting adapted the involuntary actions of automatic painting, creating on his anvases an amalgamation of strokes in such boldness and density. Rather idiosyncratic in his own artistic trajectory, Ting began primarily as an abstract painter, yet his later work gravitated towards figuratism, which extracted the essence of an object. Executed in 1959, Untitled (Lot 461) evokes a strong Oriental ambience by using Chinese ink. The painting alternates between the codified traditions of calligraphic painting and the Western pictorial theory, combining the powerful spontaneity of calligraphy with Western colours and composition. Another of his earlier works, painted in 1964, Untitled (Lot 460) has witnessed a change in his application of colours. Planes of glaring acrylic paint dabbled with a Chinese brush, brought about intense visual vibrations; the spontaneity of action, at once evokes the immediacy and emotions of Joan Mitchell's paintings (Fig. 2). Ting's frenzy drips and splattering of paint showcased his unbridled passion and vitality, as they confront the viewer with a daring brilliance (Fig. 3).
The Vivid Colours of Life
Known for his singular use of striking colours, Walasse Ting had created a stylistically diverse body of work in New York, which was dominated by improvisation and experimentation. Both completed in the 70s, Small Flowers (Lot 459) and Rainbow Passing Shower (Lot 459) share a desire to depict nature in all its serenity with wild, dynamic brushworks and freely dancing colours. The works of the famous Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt are also interpreted with the attempt to reconcile with the natural world. The Sunflower is unusual in Klimt's paintings of nature as it contains a certain anthropomorphic element - the contours of a woman's body disguised in floral shapes. Whereas, Ting reverted to lush colours and outlines to express his emotions, his paintings devoid of mere observation of the scenes in nature. His allusive works are justified with the formalist interaction of support structure, to express the human psyche on an instinctual level. One could see art itself as the means to transcend objectivity and achieve spiritual elevation in a pure aesthetic sense. In Butterflies, Bees, Quick Come Take My Honey (Lot 457) and Woman with Fruits (Lot 458), Walasse Ting had dissolved his utmost emotions into pure colours and fluid lines. The bodies of women were deliberately laid to display facets of the feminine allure, often seem to be lost in the artist's reverie. Ting was for a time one of Roy Linchtentein's neighbors, and became well-acquainted with celebrated artists such as Andy Warhol and Tom Wesselman (Fig. 5). Under the influence of the New York art circle, he has cultivated a distinctive style that traversed the movements of the East and West. The artist once said, "I want to use different colours to express my inner feelings and emotions in my paintings." Walasse Ting's paintings resonated with boundless energy; while his fascination with colour, has made his work the most authentic expression of his inner world.