Mixed media on paper

50.5 x 75.5 cm. 19 7/8 x 29 3/4 in.

Signed in English “W. TING” on lower left
Provenance：20th Century Chinese Art,Sotheby’s Taipei,1999,Lot 53.

Walasse Ting
This sale offers two pieces by Walasse Ting,both completed at different stages of his life,representing his unique style in his artistic career. Moving to Paris in 1952,Ting became acquainted with a group of artists of the avant-garde group named CoBrA. Artists including Pierre Alechinsky from Belgium,Asger Jorn from Denmark,and Karel Appel from Holland all established a profound friendship with Ting. In 1958,Ting ventured out to New York where Abstract Expressionism gained the mainstream acceptance. He discovered Andy Warhol’s talents and became involved in the Pop Art Movement. Ting’s straight forward and sentimental personality coincided with the self-expressive personality that CoBra Group prized. Being influenced by Abstract Expressionism,Ting utilised unsystematic dots,lines,colours,forms and composition to convey his intensive emotions. His affinity towards the mass culture further affirmed his appreciation towards the Pop Art culture. New York’s fast-paced rhythm also inspired Ting to employ unconventional and bold colours in the 1960s. The resplendent style of splattering and dripping techniques as well as the strident colours of Matisse’s Fauvism became the well-known trademarks featured in Ting’s works.
Abstract Still Life,a classic work by Ting in the late 1950s,was influenced by Abstract Expressionism when he first settled in New York. He uses strong brush strokes and large swathes of paint in abstract forms to express his passionate spirits,along with wild cursive calligraphy as his artistic language. In this work,Ting adopts indigo as the main colour,and used bold dark lines to separate the different colour patches such as bright yellow,grass green,chocolate brown and light pink. This work displays some similarities compared to Jackson Pollock’s work The Tea Cup created in 1946. Ting omitts figurative representation；instead,he opts for rapid brush lines as well as contrasting colours to convey his raging emotions.
In the 1970s,Ting moved away from abstract forms；subsequently,women and flowers became his favourite subject matters. He playfully painted vibrant fluorescent colours on fine Chinese paper（xuan zhi）and infused an Oriental touch into his works.
Ting’s artistic career reached its peak in the 1980s. It was then when he established his signature style through the depictions of birds,flowers and women—all executed in a vitality of brush strokes and luminous colours.
A Bouquet of Tenderness,offered in this sale,was created in 1992 and it was one of Ting’s more important works from his heyday. This work has a vertical composition；three beautiful slender women stand gracefully together with a bouquet of flowers in each one of their hands. Ting once descripted himself,“Whenever I see a beautiful woman with flowers,the feeling of affection mixed with melancholy is so peculiar that it makes me feel intangible and refreshed. I want to use different colours to express my inner emotion of state.” In this work,vivid colours such as indigo,eggplant and violet are applied to the background and the dresses of the beauties,matching the colour palettes of the flower bouquets in their hands. They all embody different hair style and hair colours,as well as different tones of makeup displaying fluorescent green,yellow,orange and burgundy red colours. This lively composition demonstrates Ting’s child-like sensibility towards the things he loved.
Ting named himself “Flower Thief” implying his praise towards feminine beauty and the wonders of youth. Though he called himself a “Thief”,the irony behind this name reflects upon his untrammeled aesthetics attitude that one shall seize the precious moments in life.

Price estimate:
HKD：85,000 - 95,000
USD：11,000 - 12,300

Auction Result:
HKD:106,200