Ink，acrylic on paper

56.5 × 80 cm. 22 1/4 × 31 1/2 in.

Stamped with an artist's seal on upper right
PROVENANCE
5 Apr 2015, Sotheby's Hong Kong Spring Auctions, Lot 203
Private Collection, Asia

Walasse Ting's Fluttering Paper Flowers

“Love, it comes like a butterfly and goes like a flower on paper.”
——Walasse Ting

A short quote already reveals Walasse Ting's lifelong creativity and candidly vibrant perspective, a characteristic he possessed since entering the world in 1929 from Wuxi, China. Since 1946, Ting has travelled all over the world with art pioneers, such as Sam Francis, Andy Warhol and Tom Wesselmann, establishing friendships as well as a connection between oriental ink and western acrylic paint. Through this connection, ink and acrylic paint are repeatedly blended and swayed, expressing emotions and liberating desires. From his still life and animal-themed creations, his childlike innocence and bold writings are revealed. Ting's works are widely collected by many world-class art museums. In this auction, we present four pieces from different periods and themes, showing the artist's indelible artistic brilliance.

Oriental Muse, Longing Infatuation

From 1960 to 1990, Walasse Ting settled in New York for 30 years, which could be said to be his most brilliant years. With a consistently open attitude towards innovative styles, such as the European avant-garde COBRA movement, he continuously absorbed the specialties of each movement and integrated them into his own works. Three Beauties (Lot 118), created in 1984, is a classic that represents his time in New York. In this painting, Ting brings three oriental muses to life with melancholy and rich blue tones. The muses' feminine faces contrasts with the vast sea of serene blue. They possess slender eyebrows and long eyes, replicating the desired beauty of the Tang Dynasty. All of them don bright flora decorations on their head, whilst holding different arrays of flowers. One holds an entire wreath, the other a bouquet and the last holding a single flower, which presents a clever contrast of less and more between them. Within the bouquet, Ting uses few strokes to embellish the silhouettes of animals, like swimming fish and parrots, which add subtle decorations that encircle the protagonists with vivid life. Ting also finds the warm expression of western modern colors in an elegant composition, such as the ‘Lady of the Tang Dynasty', which is forever memorable.

The Secret Amusement in the Boudoir

In Lady and Goldfish (Lot 115), the artist uses the horizontal perspective to elicit the secret of self-amusement. In the dreamy pink background, a long, curly red-haired girl is positioned half-length in the painting. She holds a round and bottle-neck glass vase where multicolored fish are swimming in her hands. The colors of the fish bodies echo the floral decorations on the girl's head, injecting a brisk and flowing energy into the gentle and quiet image. In this painting, Ting hides away the graceful figure and beautiful dress of the woman, which are usual subjects in his many paintings. Instead, he focuses on the unique scene of the woman and the fish. The scene evokes a sense of loneliness, but it also captures the affectionate and gentle company that the fish and the woman provide one another.

Faint Homesickness and the Appeals of the Heart

Entering the 1990's, Ting who had his 60th birthdays was invited by the Galerie Delaive in the Netherlands to frequently conduct solo exhibitions from New York to Amsterdam. Soon, Ting began to feel more homesick during his travels and stay in foreign places, becoming the source of inspiration for this next piece Two Pairs of Parrots (Lot 116). When Ting lives abroad, he always brings a parrot that speaks the pleasant-sounding Wu dialect from his hometown to relieve his homesickness. Therefore, the parrots in all of his works are regarded as symbols of his hometown. In the clear blue lake background, four parrots are stood on a branch, cuddling one another. If bright feathers expressed passionate emotions, then the red and pink parrots in the center are presented as partners in love, who are reluctant to separate. On the two sides, the green and orange parrots look at each other subtly, which represent a different side of homesickness. If the lightness and unsaturated colors of the feathers symbolize emotions, then these two parrots symbolize the artist's implicit and obscure feelings about homesickness, echoing every traveler's worry: that one day, they will look back on their life and regret the choices they've made and the opportunities they missed.

Inscribe the Heart with Beautiful Things

Ting features flowers as the main subject in his piece titled Flower, Birds and Fresh Fruits (Lot 117), which was also created in the early 1990s. From top to bottom, the colors change from bright reds and pinks to peaceful greens and blues. With cosmos and china roses blooming in hundreds, the painting captures the glory of spring. The hibiscus flowers in the center blossomed into an entire row, overlapping with each other with their sunlike orange petals. The pair of parrots on the bottom right are pampered in a gorgeous golden cage, but they yearn for the fragrant and splendid world outside, echoing Ting's own love for freedom. On the fruit platter, ripe grapes wait for the owner to taste. On the left, peaches and apples are plumper under the lush flowers and leaves. The change in color and subject from the top to the bottom of the painting conveys the natural laws of ripening, spring and autumn. This theme highlights the artist's self-confidence in his maturity. Despite the lack of the usual female characters in his work, Ting's exuberant depiction of flowers, birds and fresh fruits evoke a sense of beauty and youthful vigor.

Price estimate:
HKD: 90,000 - 150,000
USD: 11,600 - 19,300

Auction Result:
HKD: 108,000