Walasse Ting

Nude woman with flowers, detail.
Acryl on rice paper.
Sold in Belgium this month.


Born in Shanghai, China, Walesse Ting is a self-taught painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet who left China in 1949 and became a United States citizen in 1974.
In 1952 he moved to Paris where he formed close friendships with members of the CoBrA group and became acquainted with artists Karel Appel, Asger Jorn, and Pierre Alechinsky,. Ting immigrated to New York later on, where he became involved with pop artists and was influenced by Abstract Expressionism.

"...Ting is not, above all, an investigator of issues pertaining to the art of painting or to the nature of reality. What he is, in his own words, is 'a butterfly'. Not so much lightweight as virtually weightless, he makes his airy, unshadowed way among the flora of modern art and, in his poetry, the fauna of urban living." Peter Schjeldahl in the N.Y. Times

From 1963, he has lived in New York City and works in a variety of styles, his favourite subjects include deeply sensuous women, animals such as cats, birds and fishes and a broad range of flora and fauna.
After more than 20 years in New York, Ting moved to Amsterdam.
Ting is currently in the Netherlands, where he is being nursed in a private home.

Important literature:

1 Cent Life. Written by Walasse Ting, edited by Sam Francis. With 65 orig. lithographs in colour.
Fresh Air School, Exhibition of Paintings: Sam Francis, Joan Mitchell, Walasse Ting, Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute (1972)

Current Cobra exhibitions.





Clich to enlarge.
Photo: m.w.