Walasse Ting

(American/Chinese, 1929–2010)

Walasse Ting was an American-Chinese artist known for his fluorescent colored paintings of cats, erotic nudes, and flowers. “Paintings are my honey, colors are my flowers, velocity is what’s required of a thief—he must paint as speedily as he draws a gun,” he once mused. Born Ding Xiongquan on October 13, 1929 in Wuxi, China, though largely self-taught, Ting briefly attended the Art Academy in Shanghai. Moving to Paris in 1952, he made the acquaintance of many of the members of the CoBrA movement, namely Karel Appel, Pierre Alechinsky, and Asger Jorn. Later in the 1950s, Ting moved to New York where immersed himself in the art scene, befriending Sam Francis and solidifying his association with Abstract Expressionism. During this period, he incorporated the bold strokes of traditional Chinese calligraphy into his practice. Finding critical acclaim, he was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1970. The artist died on May 17, 2010 in New York, NY at the age of 80. Today, his works are held in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, among others.