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 the 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 more than ten solo shows for him; the most recent one in 2017 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; M+ Hong Kong.


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, United States
1974    Became an American citizen             
1977    Awarded a fellowship for drawing from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, United States
2010    Passed away on May 17 in New York, United States

 

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 
2017

2016                               

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

2010               

2009               

  • The Catto Gallery, London, United Kingdom

2008               

2002

2001               

  • Yibo Gallery, Shanghai, China

2000

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

1998               

1997

1996               

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

1995               

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

1994               

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

1993            

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

1992          

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

1991

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

1990               

  • Galerie Alcolea, Barcelona, Spain
  • Galerie Alcolea, Madrid, Spain
  • Galerie Moustache, Osaka, Japan
  • Galerie l’Orangerie, St. Paul-de-Vence, France
  • Ghent Lineart Internationale, Ghent, Belgium
  • Galleria 2RC, Milan, Italy
  • Galeria de Arte, Almancil, Portugal
  • Louis Stern Galleries, Beverly Hills, United States

1989               

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

1988              

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

1987

  • Galerie Asbaek, Copenhagen, Sweden
  • Gallery Esperanza, Montreal, Canada
  • Elfin Art Gallery, Quebec, Canada
  • Ars Mundi, Hanover, Germany
  • Galerie l’Orangerie, Geneva, Switzerland
  • Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan

1986               

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

1985               

  • Art Unlimited, Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • Galerie La Hune, Paris, France
  • Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
  • Galerie Asbaek, Copenhagen, Sweden
  • Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam, Netherlands

1984               

  • Galerie Huset, Copenhagen, Sweden
  • Lefebre Gallery, New York, United States
  • Avant-Grande Art Centre, Taichung, Taiwan
  • Lung Chiang Art Gallery, Kao Hsiung, Taiwan
  • Galerie BBL, Antwerp, Belgium
  • Galeria 2RC, Rome, Italy
  • Galeria 2RC, Milan, Italy

1983               

  • Galerie Dessers, Hasselt, Belgium               
  • Galerie Nouvelles Images, The Hague, Netherlands
  • Gallery Koppelmann, Leverkusen, Germany
  • Lens Fine Art, Antwerp, Belgium
  • Galerie Grafica Club, Milan, Italy
  • Galerie Birch, Copenhagen, Sweden
  • Galerie Moderne, Silkeborg, Denmark  

1982               

  • National Gallery of Art, Reykjavik, Iceland
  • Lefebre Gallery, New York, United States      

1980               

  • Lefebre Gallery, New York, United States

1979               

  • Galerie Nouvelles Images, The Hague, Netherlands
  • Lefebre Gallery, New York, United States

1978               

  • Lens Fine Art, Antwerp, Belgium
  • Galerie Aele, Madrid, Spain

1977               

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

1975               

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

1974

  • Galerie Minami, Tokyo, Japan
  • Galerie Adrian Maeght, Paris, France

1973

  • Galerie Birch, Copenhagen, Sweden
  • Lefebre Gallery, New York, United States

1972

  • Lefebre Gallery, New York, United States
  • Galerie Birch, Copenhagen, Sweden

1971

  • Lefebre Gallery, New York, United States

1970

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

1969

  • Lefebre Gallery, New York, United States

1968

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

1967

  • Lefebre Gallery, New York, United States
  • J.L. Hudson Gallery, Detroit, United States
  • Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, United States

1966

  • Galerie Lefebre, New York, United States
  • Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, United States

1965

  • Lefebre Gallery, New York, United States

1964

  • Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, United States

1963               

  • Lefebre Gallery, New York, United States
  • Galerie Birch, Copenhagen, United States

1962               

  • Galerie St. Stephan, Vienna, Austria

1961               

  • Galerie Van de Loo, Munich, Germany
  • Galerie Rive Gauche, Paris, France
  • Galerie Smith, Brussels, Belgium
  • Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, United States

1960               

  • Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, United States
  • Galerie Espace, Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • Galerie Birch, Copenhagen, Sweden

1957               

  • Galerie Chalette, New York, United States

1956               

  • Galerie Taptoe, Brussels, Belgium

1954              

  • Galerie Paul Facchetti, Paris, France

1952               

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

 

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020
 2019
  • Art 021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair 2019, Alisan Fine Arts, Shanghai Exhibition Centre, Shanghai, China
  • Art Basel Hong Kong, Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong
  • 1st Taipei Dangdai, Alisan Fine Arts, Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, Taipei, Taiwan
2018
2017  

2016                               

2015               

  • Art Basel Hong Kong, Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong                           
  • 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 & Convention Centre, Hong Kong
2007                               
  • Exploration: New Ink Art Shanghai 2007, 3rd Shanghai Ink Biennial, Zhu Qizhan Art Museum, Shanghai, China

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United States
Guggenheim Museum, New York, United States
Museum of Modern Art, New York, United States
Rockefeller University, New York, United States
Chicago Art Institue, Chicago, United States
Museum of Fine Art, Boston, United States
M C A, Los Angeles, United States
Carnegie Institue, Pittsburgh, United States
U.S. Steel, Pittsburgh, United States
Gulf Oil Corp, Pittsburgh, United States
SAMA, Pennsylvania, United States
Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, United States
Chrysler Museum, Provincetown, United States
Baltimore Museum, Baltimore, United States
Philadephia Museum, Philadephia, United States
Santa Barbara Museum, Santa Barbara, United States
Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Virginia, United States
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, United States
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, United States
Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hannover, New Hampshire, United States
Musée Cernuschi, Paris, France
Tate Gallery, London, United Kingdom
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Silkeborg Kunstmuseum, Silkeborg, Denmark
Randers Museum, Randers, Denmark
Israel National Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
National Gallery of Art, Reykjavik, Iceland
Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong
M+, Hong Kong

 

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

 
Beauty with Flowers and Cat
1990s | 55 x 74cm | Chinese ink and acrylic on rice paper
Two Oriental Girls with Flower and Hand Fan
1990s | 48 x 75cm | Chinese ink and acrylic on rice paper
Orange Horse and Beauty
1990s | 23x29cm | Chinese ink & acrylic on rice paper
Side Eye
1990s | 22x29cm | Chinese ink & acrylic on rice paper
Green and Red Love Birds
1990s | 23x29 cm | Chinese ink and acrylic on rice paper
Girl with a Floral Fan
1990s | 23.5 x 29cm | Chinese ink & acrylic on rice paper
Two Girls Gossiping
1990s | 11.5x17.5 cm | Chinese ink and acrylic on rice paper
Blue Horse and Bouquet
1990s | 23x29.5 cm | Chinese ink and acrylic on rice paper
Daydreams
1990s | 22.5 x 29 cm | Chinese ink and acrylic on rice paper
Girl with a Garland
1990s | 87x87cm | Chinese ink & acrylic on rice paper
Watermelon Feast
1990s | 96x178 cm | Chinese ink & acrylic on rice paper
Two Ladies with a Horse of Tangerine Colour
1990s | 95x218cm/37 1/2x85 3/4'' | Chinese ink & colour on rice paper
Pink Horse
1990s | 97x178cm | Chinese ink and acrylic on rice paper
Three Ladies with Floral Fans
1980s | 180x98cm | Chinese ink & acrylic on rice paper
Three Beauties Holding Bouquets
1990s | 180x96cm | Chinese ink & acrylic on rice paper
Free as a Fish
1990s | 74x96cm | Chinese ink & acrylic on rice paper
Midsummer Night
1990s | 95x178cm | Chinese ink & acrylic on rice paper
Dazzling Garden
1980 | 123x243cm | Chinese ink & acrylic on rice paper
Guilin Mountains
1990s | 23x30cm | Chinese ink & acrylic on rice paper
Two Oriental Beauties with a Purple Horse
1980s | 180x96cm x3 | Chinese ink & acrylic on rice paper
Kiss Me, Kiss Me 10029
1973 | 57x76 cm | Acrylic & oil pastel on western paper
Love Me, Love Me 10044
1975 | 70x104 cm | Acrylic and oil pastel on Western paper
Love Me, Love Me 10041
1975 | 69.5x104cm | Acrylic & oil pastel on western paper
Beauty Fantasy
1990s | 95x177cm/37 1/2x70'' | Chinese ink & colour on rice paper