Walasse Ting

Walasse Ting (DING XIONGQUAN) (October 13, 1929 – May 17, 2010) Born in Wuxi, China in 1929, but raised in Shanghai, Walesse Ting is a self-taught painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet who began his life as an artist at a very young age, painting on sidewalks. He left China in 1949 and settled for a six year period in Paris beginning in 1952, where he lived as a poor struggling artist but became acquainted with artists Karel Appel, Asger Jorn, and Pierre Alechinsky, members of the avant-garde group called COBRA.

His favourite subjects include deeply sensuous women, animals such as cats, birds and fishes and a broad range of flora and fauna.

He was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship Award for Drawing.