Acrylic on paper

60 × 75.5 cm.23 5/8 × 29 3/4 in.

Stamped with artist’s seal on upper right
PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Asia

Note：A label of Florida Art on Royal， USA is affixed on the reverse

The World Full of Blossom, the Falling Brush Containing Love
Walasse Ting’s Free Garden

“Before painting, I was here; after painting, I have gone away.”
——Walasse Ting

Looking at the Eastern art scene, it can be said that Walasse Ting is an artist who has reached the realm of freedom. Born in 1929 in Wuxi to a famous family, Walasse Ting has travelled extensively throughout his life and had rich experiences, studying in France and the United States before settling in Amsterdam in his later years. As he called himself a “flower-picking thief” and “Mr. Free Spirit”, his bold style of painting and his signature use of bold colours have made him a highly recognizable artist, making him one of the most popular and internationally known “universal artists” in the Chinese modern art scene.

Walasse Ting has been personally involved in contemporary art movements. He is internationally known, and has collectors of his artworks all over the world; he was awarded a Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in 1977 in the category of painting. Many of the most important art museums around the world have collections of his works. In this spring auction, we present two of his classic works on paper, one featuring a human figure and the other a parrot, which showcase the artistic inspiration of the master of his generation, who is a blend of East and West.

A Masterpiece of Walasse Ting’s Painting Language

Lady in Repose (Lot 86) is presented in a huge 1.8-metre banner, with an oriental woman reclining on the left side of the painting. In contrast to Ting’s usual image of a bold and daring woman, the figure is dressed in a dark robe and wearing a flower hairpin in a woman’s bun from the Tang Dynasty, revealing a subtle and timeless oriental aura. On the fan in one hand, four parrots stand on the golden surface of the fan, echoing each other, while on the round coffee table on the right side, fruits and flowers are placed, with juicy peaches, pears and grapes echoing the vivid flowers blooming in the green leaves. In the lower left corner of the painting, a sleeping cat is leaning under the woman and taking a nap, revealing a lazy and self-sufficient posture, creating the gentle utopia that the artist has pursued all his life.

The Heart of a Wanderer, the Realm of Solitude

Walasse Ting beautifully sketched this scene, capturing the viewer’s gaze with the rich world and emotions of woman. “Before the painting, I was a man; after the painting was completed, I became a woman.” In Lady in Repose, he used the portrait of a woman as a metaphor for his own emotions without revealing any traces. While Ting is known to have made many friends and traveled with many scholars, he is rarely known to have enjoyed himself and his solitude. By outlining the “woman”, “flowers” and “animals” juxtaposed in the same space, he also gave a complete account of his inner world - a wanderer’s heart full of love for the world, yet full of loneliness. This allows us to see another side of him that is not known to the public, and makes Lady in Repose unique and different from his previous works.

An Interesting Parrot Relieves the Homesickness

Rarely does Parrot (Lot 85) focus on a woman or a flower or fruit, elevating it from a supporting role in previous works to the main character, framing this “confidant” who has accompanied Ting around the world for years. Three parrots stand side-by-side on the buds of a branch, and the artist boldly distinguishes the male from the female by colour: the bright pink feathers of the two parrots on the left and the right are bright and clean, while the middle parrot is colored in green. The three look in the same direction, their gaze blazing like torches, as if they are thinking of the way home, which whispers their lifelong ties and expresses the author’s heartfelt feelings. The spontaneous ink lines and the openness of the colours reveal the pure and vivid mood of life, which is unforgettable.

Price estimate:
HKD: 60,000 – 80,000
USD: 7,600 – 10,200

Auction Result:
HKD: 81,600