Ting Walasse

1928-2010, Wuxi China

Introduction

Born in Wuxi, Jiangsu in 1928, Walasse Ting is an artist celebrated for his colourful and bright depictions of animals, flora and sultry women. He briefly studied at the Shanghai Art Academy in 1940s, before leaving for Paris in 1948 at the age of nineteen. There he became associated with artists belonging to the avant-garde group CoBrA. In 1958, he travelled to New York, where he befriended the American artist Sam Francis; here Ting became strongly influenced by Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. In 1964 he wrote One Cent Life, edited by Francis and published by E.W. Kornfeld, which involved collaborating with twenty-eight European and American Pop Art and Expressionist artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Joan Mitchell, and included sixty-two original lithographs. In 1977, he won the Guggenheim Fellowship Award for his drawings. His paintings during this period are filled with bold dripping brushstrokes mixed with bright acrylic pigments, but by the 1970s, he began experimenting with figures, developing the distinctive style that we are so familiar with today. His paintings are a sheer testimony to love, life and beauty. His paintings of women, flowers, cats, fish, horses and watermelons are often painted in a rich palette of bright acrylics on rice paper, layered with powerful effervescent brushstrokes in Chinese ink. He passed away in 2010.

Alisan Fine Arts organised Ting’s first solo exhibition in Hong Kong in 1986 and has since then held in total nine solo shows for him; the most recent one in 2010 to celebrate his prolific life. Taipei Fine Arts Museum also held a retrospective in 2010. His works have been collected by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Chicago Institute of Art; Tate Gallery, London; Musée Cernuschi, Paris; Shanghai Art Museum; Taipei Fine Arts Museum; Hong Kong Museum of Art.

BIOGRAPHY

1928   Born in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China

1940   Studied at the Shanghai Art Academy, China

1946   Moved to Hong Kong

1952   Arrived in Paris, France

1958   Moved to New York, US

1974   Became an American citizen             

1977   Awarded a fellowship for drawing from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation

2010   Passed away on May 17 in New York, US

 

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 

2017

2016                               

  • Walasse Ting: The Flower Thief, Musee Cernuschi, Paris, France

2010               

2009               

  • The Catto Gallery, London

2008               

2002

2001               

  • Yibo Gallery, Shanghai

2000

  • Scheringa Museum, Spanbroek, Netherlands
1999
  • The Catto Gallery, London

1998               

1997

1996               

  • Wetterling Teo Gallery, Singapore
  • Galerie Delaive, Amaterdam
  • Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong

1995               

  • Gallerie Guy Pieters, Belgium
  • Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong

1994               

  • Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong
  • Kunstforum, Belgium
  • P Gallery, Hamburg
  • Tresors, Singapore

1993            

  • Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong
  • Apollo Gallery, Taipei
  • Avant-Grande Art Center, Taipei
  • Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong
  • P Gallery, Hamburg
  • Galerie Luc Pieters Galerie, Knokke
  • Galerie l’Orangerie, St. Paul-de-Vence

1992          

  • Sala Nonell, Barcelona
  • Galerie Acolea, Madrid
  • Lineart Ghent, Belgium

1991

  • Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong
  • Sala Nonell, Barcelona
  • Galerie Acolea, Madrid
  • Galleria del Monte Ischia, Italy
  • Arthouse Gallery, Copenhagen

1990               

  • Galerie Alcolea, Barcelona
  • Galerie Alcolea, Madrid
  • Galerie Moustache, Osaka
  • Galerie l’Orangerie, St. Paul-de-Vence
  • Lineart, Ghent Belgium
  • Galleria 2RC, Milan
  • Galeria de Arte, Almansil. Portugal
  • Louis Stern Galleries, Beverly Hills

1989               

  • American Club, Hong Kong
  • Lens Fine Art, Antwerp
  • American Prints Valencia, Spain
  • Galerie Lucy Weill-Seligmann, Paris
  • Galerie Ostermalm, Stockholm
  • Galerie Scandinavia, Goteburg

1988              

  • Galerie Alcolea, Baecelona
  • Galerie Alcolea, Madrid
  • Galerie Guy Pieters Knokke, Belgium
  • Galerie Asbaek, Horsens, Denmark
  • Galeria Torres Clary Reus, Spain
  • Lineart Ghent, Belgium

1987

  • Galerie Asbaek, Copenhagen
  • Gallery Esperanza, Montreal
  • Elfin Art Gallery, Quebec
  • Ars Mundi. Hanover
  • Galerie l’Orangerie, Geneva
  • Taipei Fine Art Museum, Taipei

1986               

  • Galerie Nouvelles Images, The Hague
  • P Gallery, Hamburg
  • Galeria del Manifesto, Verona
  • Galerie Dessers Hasselt, Belgium
  • Kunstforum Ghent, Belgium
  • Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong

1985               

  • Art Unlimited, Amsterdam
  • Galerie La Hune, Paris
  • Taipei Fine Art Museum, Taipei
  • Galerie Asbaek, Copenhagen
  • Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam

1984               

  • Galerie Huset, Copenhagen
  • Lefebre Gallery, New York
  • Avant-Grande Art Center, Taichung
  • Lung Chiang Art Gallery, Kao Hsuing
  • Galerie BBL, Antwerp
  • Galeria 2RC, Rome
  • Galeria 2RC, Milan

1983               

  • Galerie Dessers Hasselt, Belgium               
  • Galerie Nouvelles Images, the Hague
  • Gallery Koppelmann, Leverkusen
  • Lens Fine Art, Antwerp
  • Galerie Grafica Club, Milan
  • Galerie Birch, Copenhagen
  • Galerie Moderne, Silkeborg  

1982               

  • National Gallery of Art, Reykjavik
  • Lefebre Gallery, New York      

1980               

  • Lefebre Gallery, New York

1979               

  • Galerie Nouvelles Images, The Hague
  • Lefebre Gallery, New York

1978               

  • Lens Fine Art, Antwerp
  • Galerie Aele, Madrid

1977               

  • Galerie Adrian Maeght, Paris
  • Galerie Grafica Club, Milan

1975               

  • Galerie Birch, Copenhagen
  • National Museum, Taipei
  • Galerie Nord Randers, Denmark
  • Kornfeld and Klipstein, Bern

1974

  • Galerie Minami, Tokyo
  • Galerie Adrian Maeght, Paris

1973

  • Galerie Birch,Cpenhagen
  • Lefebre Gallery, New York

1972

  • Lefebre Gallery, New York
  • Galerie Birch, Copenhagen

1971

  • Lefebre Gallery, New York

1970

  • Lefebre Gallery, New York
  • Galerie Birch, Copenhagen
  • Esther Bear Gallery, Santa Barbara
  • Carnegie International, Pittsburgh

1969

  • Lefebre Gallery, New York

1968

  • Lefebre Gallery, New York
  • Galerie de France, Paris

1967

  • Lefebre Gallery, New York
  • J.L. Hudsom Gallery, Detroit
  • Carnegie International, Pittsburgh

1966

  • Galerie Lefebre, New York
  • Carnegie International, Pittsburgh

1965

  • Lefebre Gallery, New York

1964

  • Carnegie International, Pittsburgh

1963               

  • Lefebre Gallery, New York
  • Galerie Birch, Copenhagen

1962               

  • Galerie St. Stephan, Vienna

1961               

  • Galerie Van de Loo, Munich
  • Galerie Rive Gauche, Paris
  • Galerie Smith, Brussels
  • Carnegie International, Pittsburgh

1960               

  • Martha Jackson Gallery, New York
  • Galerie Espace, Amsterdam
  • Galerie Birch, Copenhagen

1957               

  • Galerie Chalette, New York

1956               

  • Galerie Taptoe, Brussels

1954              

  • Galerie Paul Fachetti, Paris

1952               

  • Hotel Cecil, Hong Kong
1959               
  • Martha Jackson Gallery, New York

 

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2017  

2016                               

2015                              

  • Syncretic Visions: The First Generation of Chinese Diaspora Artists in America, FINE ART ASIA, Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong
    Art Taipei 2015, Taipei, Taiwan

2012                              

2010                               

2009
  • Hong Kong International Art & Antiques Fair, Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention Centre, Hong Kong
2007                               
  • Exploration: New Ink Art Shanghai 2007, 3rd Shanghai Ink Biennale, Zhu Qizhan Art Museum, Shanghai, China

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

Chicago Art Institue, Chicago

Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit

Chrysler Museum, Provincetown

Musée Cernuschi , Paris

Silkeborg Kunstmuseum, Denmark

Randers Museum, Denmark

Rockeferller University, New York

Museum of Modern Art, New York

Baltimore Museum, Baltimore

Israel National Museum, Jerusalem

Philadephia Museum, Philadephia

Carnegie Institue, Pittsburgh

U.S. Steel, Pittsburgh

Gulf Oil Corp, Pittsburgh

Museum of Fine Art, Boston

Santa Barbara Museum, Santa Barbara

Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Virginia

Guggenheim Museum, New York

Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo

Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth Callege, Hannover, New Hampshire

M C A, Los Angeles

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

National Gallery of Art, Reykjavik, Iceland

Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong

Taipei Fine Art Museum, Taipei

Tate Gallery, London

Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai

SAMA, Pennsylvania

 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

1961   My Shit and My love

1964   One Cent Life

1967   Chinese Moonlight

1969   Hot and Sour Soup

1971   Green Banana

1974   Trip, All in My Head, Good Morning

1977   Red Mouth

1984   Rice Paper Paintings

1988   Jolies Dames

1993   Blue Sky

1995   Acrylic on Canvas

1997   A Very Hot Day