Provenance: Private Collection, Madrid

ABOUT THE WORK

Seven years after his death in 2010, Walasse Ting continues to emerge as one of the most interesting and important painters of the 20th century. His Western name “Walasse” was inspired by the spelling of Matisse. During his youth, he underwent some early formal training at the Shanghai Art Academy but was largely self-taught and would even paint on the pavements of his home town. During the 1940s, Ting’s reputation grew and he decided to leave China for Paris where he formed close connections with the COBRA Group — a school of artists based in Copenhagen (Co), Brussels (Br), Amsterdam (A) which preached pure experimentation in colour. He also formed a lifelong friendship with Belgian artist, Pierre Alechinsky. By 1958, Ting decided to relocate to New York. Ting threw himself into abstraction, and began to absorb the influence of the firebrand innovators of the period — Claes Oldenburg, Jim Dine, Asger Jorn, Robert Rauschenberg and others. Though he was close to the American avant garde, Ting also formed close friendships with New York-based Chinese artists. By the 1970s, Ting had arrived at his mature painting style, applying strong colors to erotic nude subjects (i.e. Red Mouth) and later to studies of flowers (i.e. From Ting to Susan), birds and animals. But his Chinese roots were always evident. In the 1980s, Ting began using rice paper to produce a series of fabulous and delicate bird and flower paintings. Many of these works were made in Amsterdam, which reminded Ting of Hangzhou and its canals. He moved to the Netherlands in 1987