What art movement was the painter Walasse Ting associated with?
The Chinese painter Walasse Ting was a genre-breaking artist who formed an essential link between the CoBrA movement, Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art.
Ting mixed with artistic circles in Paris as soon as he arrived in the city, but he did not join a particular artistic movement and refused to associate himself with any particular school or group. The Chinese painter became very close to the artist Pierre Alechinsky in particular, as well as other members of the CoBrA movement. Although Ting used materials associated with traditional Chinese painting, the artist defined his works very early on as “modern” and representing an “Eastern and Western style”. In 1965, the director Hidai Nankoku filmed the painter Walasse Ting at work. The film shows him painting on sheets of paper on the floor. The Chinese painter used a gestural form of expression in his work, just like Jackson Pollock. Walasse Ting won the Guggenheim Fellowship Award for drawing in 1970. In the same year, he donated forty of his works to the Cernuschi Museum in Paris. The artist defined himself as: “Self-taught. Individual. Not part of any group.” The Chinese artist Walasse Ting’s work was characterised by the recurrent use of certain themes: women, flowers and horses. In addition to being a painter, Ting was also a poet.
Please visit the Chinese painter Walasse Ting’s dedicated page or the page on Abstract Expressionism or the CoBrA group to learn more about these art movements.
