Walasse Ting (1929-2010) was a self-taught artist known for vivid paintings of human and animal subjects, as well as more gestural abstract works. Ting draws influence from Chinese calligraphy techniques, and he nurtured his talent painting on sidewalks as a youth in Shanghai.
When he moved to Paris in 1952, he met artists Asger Jorn and Karel Appel of the CoBrA group, whose emphasis on spontaneity left a lasting impression on him. Five years later, Ting moved to New York City, where —exposed to Pop art and Abstract Expressionism from fellow artists Sam Francis, Tom Wesselman, and Claes Oldenberg —he developed his mature style of vivid, gestural painting. His work can be found in permanent international collections such as the Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Tate Modern Museum in London, Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Hong Kong Museum of Art.