Walasse Ting: Hedonic Ideals and an Unrestrained Lifestyle

Walasse Ting (Ding Xiongquan, 1929-2010) rendered his canvases ablaze with vivid colours and expressive brushstrokes. As a painter, sculptor, and poet, his recurring motifs of women and flowers were a reflection of his hedonic ideals and unrestrained lifestyle. Ting’s maximalist and romantic approach to art is encapsulated by his kaleidoscopic oeuvre of paintings and prints.

Drawing inspiration from his cosmopolitan lifestyle, his work embodied a variety of styles such as Fauvism, Pop art, and Abstract Expressionism, while remaining faithful to his Chinese roots by drawing parallels from early Tang dynasty painting.

About the Artist

Born in Wuxi, Jiangsu in 1929, Ting briefly attended the Shanghai Art Academy before moving to Paris in 1952. There, he became close friends with American painter and printmaker Sam Francis, as well as leading figures of the avant-garde CoBrA movement, Pierre Alechinsky, Karel Appel and Asger Jorn.

The artistic influences from his Parisian connections drove Ting to an infatuation with Henri Matisse’s Fauvism, where the wild, bold, and simple colours deeply affected his painting style. It was at this time that he standardized the ending of his nom d’artiste, which he had earlier anglicised to Wallace, to become ‘Walasse’, in the manner of Matisse.

Ting moved to New York in 1958 for his artist’s residency when Abstract Expressionism was blossoming. He shared a studio with artist Vivian Springford and befriended Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, and Tom Wesselmann. The drip painting technique of the Abstract Expressionists had a clear influence on Ting’s works, as seen in “Lady with a Vase”, 1981. New York was also where he met his wife Natalie Lipton. Ting would take annual trips to visit Lipton’s family in South Florida throughout the 1970s and 80s, where he visited the Miami Wildlife Park to sketch and photograph tropical birds and flowers for reference material. His fondness for South Florida inspired his vivid palette and lively depictions of figures and animals in his paintings.

In the retrospective exhibition “Parrot Jungle” by the NSU Art Museum, Florida, a photograph of the artist in West Palm Beach, posing with a watermelon in front of him and a hibiscus tucked behind his ear, was also included. As aptly described by his son, Jesse Ting, Walasse “had a lust for life, and saw life like it was a juicy piece of fruit to be eaten”.

Style and Inspiration

Walasse Ting is best known for his figurative pieces, which combined all of the above influences with his Chinese cultural background. In “Six Geishas”, painted in the early 1980s, Ting combines his signature vibrant palette, informed by the colours of modernism, with a traditional Chinese ink wash to highlight the translucency in the ladies’ silk robes. The composition of the work is a clear reference to Tang dynasty (618–907) paintings of court ladies, where figures are often placed in succession in a ritualistic procession. The women portrayed in his paintings are contemporary parallels of the court ladies in Tang paintings–instead of being adorned with combs and “hua zi” (floral facial decoration), the women in Ting’s imagination are accompanied by parrots and tropical flowers, visual elements truthful to his lifestyle and aesthetics.

Ting’s depictions of horses are also inspired by Tang dynasty depictions of lively and robust horses in paintings, pottery, and stone sculpture. This is evidenced by a series of lithographs made in 1981, where a number of plump horses are depicted next to figures.

Ting found continuous inspiration in his most favourite subjects–women, flowers, animals, and food. Rather than focusing on natural complexion, defined contours, and precise brushstrokes, he employed vivid, expressive colors, organic shapes, and flowing lines to depict his figures, evoking the ambiguous, primal silhouettes seen in Matisse’s “Dance”.

Recognized as an important figure in the history of Chinese and American art, Ting’s works can be found in permanent collections of over forty museums around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, the Taipei Fine Art Museum, and the National Gallery of Australia.

丁雄泉（Wallasse Ting, 1929-2010）以生动的色彩和富有表现力的笔触给予了他的画布无限光彩。作为一位画家、雕塑家和诗人，他反复使用的女性与花卉题材反映了他享乐主义的理想和自由不羁的生活方式。他那极致且浪漫的艺术手法通过他五光十色的绘画和版画作品得到了充分体现。丁雄泉从他环游的生活中汲取灵感，在他的作品中融合了野兽派、波普艺术和抽象表现主义等多种艺术风格，同时又巧妙地融入了早期唐代绘画的风格以向其中国文化背景致敬。

丁雄泉于1928年出生在江苏无锡，曾短暂就读于上海美术专科学校，于1952年移居巴黎。在巴黎期间，他与美国画家兼版画家山姆·弗朗西斯（Sam Francis），先锋派CoBrA艺术团体的各位领军人物皮埃尔·阿列钦斯基（Pierre Alechinsky）、卡雷尔·阿佩尔（Karel Appel）和阿斯格·约恩（Asger Jorn）建立了深厚的友谊。

巴黎的艺术圈使丁雄泉对亨利·马蒂斯（Henri Matisse）的野兽派画风产生了浓厚的兴趣，马蒂斯狂野、豪迈且简约的色彩对他的绘画风格产生了深远的影响。正是在此阶段，他将其艺名从英文的“Wallace”改为“Wallasse”，以效仿马蒂斯的名字（Matisse）。

1958年，丁雄泉移居纽约，正处于纽约城内抽象表现主义风靡的时代，他在纽约开启了其艺术驻留生涯。彼时，丁与艺术家薇薇安·斯普林福德（Vivian Springford）共享工作室，并结识了安迪·沃霍尔（Andy Warhol）、罗伯特·劳申伯格（Robert Rauschenberg）和汤姆·韦瑟曼（Tom Wesselmann）等人。抽象表现主义画家们的滴画技法对丁雄泉的作品产生了显著影响，这在他1981年的作品《Lady with a Vase》中得到了体现。

纽约也是丁雄泉与妻子娜塔莉·利普顿（Natalie Lipton）相识的地方。丁每年都会前往南佛罗里达拜访其妻子的家人，期间他常常光顾迈阿密野生动物公园进行写生和摄影，把记录下的热带鸟类和花卉作为创作素材。对南佛罗里达的热爱激发了他作品中充满活力的色彩，以及生动的人物和动物描写。

在佛罗里达NSU艺术博物馆举办的回顾展《鹦鹉丛林 Parrot Jungle》中展示了丁雄泉在西棕榈滩的照片，照片中的他面前摆着一块西瓜，耳根上别着一朵木槿花。正如他儿子杰西（Jesse Ting）所说，丁雄泉“热爱着生活，生活就是一块多汁的水果，待君品尝。”

丁雄泉最为人熟知的是他的具象作品，这些作品融合了以上所有的艺术影响与他的中国文化背景。在80年代初所创作的《六艺伎 Six Geishas》中，他将现代主义鲜艳的调色板与传统的中国水墨画技法相结合，突出展示了画中女士的丝绸长袍的透明感。作品的构图明显借鉴了唐代（618-907）宫廷仕女画的构图，人物常常排成一行，形成仪式般的队列。丁雄泉的画中所描绘的女性是唐代仕女的现代化形象——她们不再佩戴发簪和“花子”（一种唐代的花卉面饰），而是与鹦鹉和热带花卉为伴，这些视觉元素真实地反映了他自身的生活方式和审美。丁雄泉对马的描绘也深受唐代画作、陶器和石雕中挺拔活泼而健硕的骏马的启发。具体展现在其1981年创作的一系列以丰满的骏马与人物为主题的石版画中。

丁雄泉在他最喜爱的题材——女性、花卉、动物和食物中源源不断地汲取灵感。他没有专注于自然肤色、生硬鲜明的轮廓和精确的笔触，而是运用了鲜艳、富有表现力的色彩、有机的形状和流畅的线条来描绘人物，与马蒂斯《舞蹈》中模糊而原始的轮廓绘画相呼应。

丁雄泉被公认为中美艺术史中的杰出大师代表人物。其作品现已被全球40多家博物馆收藏，其中包括纽约大都会艺术博物馆、伦敦泰特现代美术馆、巴黎蓬皮杜艺术中心、台北市立美术馆和澳大利亚国立美术馆等。

About the Auction

We are pleased to offer three works by Walasse Ting in our spring 2025 Asian Art auction online March 14 – April 3.

The auction features a collection of important jade carvings including pieces from the Estate of a Westchester New York judge. Other important objects include a Ming Cloisonné ‘Fanghu’ Vase previously exhibited by the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, a 19th Century Cloisonné ‘Bianhu’ Moonflask, Japanese woodblock prints with provenance from R. Kruml and Neil Davey, and the final portion of South Asian and Himalayan works of art from the Janak Khendry Collection.

View the online gallery.

View the auction in person at our Toronto Gallery:
Sunday, March 30 from 12 pm to 4 pm
Monday, March 31 from 10 am to 5 pm
Tuesday, April 1 from 10 am to 5 pm

Or by appointment.

Please contact us for more information.