Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 16

Walasse Ting
Chinese Moonlight (signed, dated and inscribed by Walasse Ting) with four lithos

1967

$2,500
£1,931.68
€2,233.21
CA$3,532.68
A$3,962.14
CHF 2,074.91
MX$48,143.82
NOK 26,347.88
SEK 24,979.64
DKK 16,669.73

About the Item

Walasse Ting 丁雄泉 Chinese Moonlight (signed, dated and inscribed by Walasse Ting), 1967 Illustrated Softback monograph with four original double-page lithographs (hand signed, dated and inscribed) Signed and inscribed by Walasse Ting on the half title page 10 1/2 × 7 1/2 × 1/2 inches Inscription reads: to Frances Klenett with very best wishes from Walasse Ting new york city 15 December 1972 (Frances Klenett was a composer, teacher and rare-book dealer. She was married to Eric Salzman, Avant Garde composer and music critic) Book information: CHINESE MOONLIGHT: 63 poems by 33 poets Publisher: ‎ Wittenborn and Co; (January 1, 1967) ‎English; softback with 71 pp of Chinese poetry (63 works) by 33 poets, selected, translated and illustrated by 4 double-page lithographs by Ting. About Walasse Ting: Born in Wuxi, China, then raised in Shanghai, where, by his own account he first began painting on the sidewalks. Without a visa and only five American dollars in his pocket he moved to Paris in 1952. Life was difficult but he found a small room in Passage Riguinot. Having met Pierre Alechinsky, who he taught oriental calligraphy to, he was introduced and formed close friendships with members of the CoBrA Group, the avant-gard movement. Eight years later Ting emigrated to New York, where he became involved with the Pop artists and influenced by American Abstract Expressionism. The conflict of conservative Eastern values and the modern Western culture is apparent in Ting’s work, he states “in this respect, artists are to a certain extent schizophrenics. Some try to resolve the contradiction by conscious means, by using traditional techniques and elements of traditional Chinese art in an attempt to modernize Chinese painting”. Julian Alvard noted in 1954 “the influence of Chinese paintings on Western paintings, particularly American, is well known. What we are faced with now is the problem reversed, and how impenetrable it becomes: it is how can one be a Chinese painter after the shock of Western painting? The painting of Walasse Ting is one of the aspects of the new battle that’s beginning to be fought”. This battle has continued with young Chinese painters today now picking up the influences of earlier rare Chinese successes such as Walasse Ting. Walasse continued to travel and in 1987 stopped in Amsterdam, which reminded him of Hangzhou with all the canals. He loved the city so much he decided to stay permanently While Ting was in Paris in the 1950s, he became deeply involved in the CoBrA movement, and when he moved to New York in the 60s, he was closely tied to the New York School. In 1964, Ting published a collection of poetry titled One Cent Life, in which he included prints from 68 celebrities of the contemporary art world, including Sam Francis, Antonio Saura, Pierre Alechinsky, Karel Appel, Asger Jorn, and Andy Warhol, a testament to his highly impressive artistic network. The works by this vivacious postwar artist have since been collected by over forty international art museums and foundations, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim, the New York Metropolitan Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art, London’s Tate Gallery, the Guimet Museum of Asian Art in Paris, and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Ting believed himself not to belong to any art school. While Chinese artists were striving, one after another, to push Eastern elements into the lexicon of postwar painting, Ting was comparatively motivated by his individual passions and loves, allowing the influences of his culture and ethnicity to trickle through naturally. For this reason, viewing Ting’s work is an experience of lightness and ease. It is as though one is witnessing the work of a youthful artist, full of vigour and surging creativity, casually fiddling with the paintbrush and allowing his joy and inspiration to spill out directly from the heart. A Lots of Sunshine Here and Winds Sing Song were created in the early 1970s, just as the artist was beginning to enter the period in which flowers and women became his dominant subjects. Influenced by the abstract expressionism of the New York School, the artist had already reached a realm of complete creative immersion. The splashes of vibrant red spill across the canvas like the bold rays of the sun, while the verdant green, bright yellow, and tender peach neon acrylic colours spray across the canvas in dynamic motion, as though fluttering in the wind. The artist bestows the paint with incomparable freedom of motion, re-enacting upon the canvas the passion and action of nature. The action painting that became iconic of American abstractionist Jackson Pollock is similarly imbued within Ting’s large-scale abstract paintings. Yet Ting often did not insist upon filling up the entire canvas; rather, he intentionally allowed his carefully laid foundation to remain visible, creating contrast and dynamism between the still and uniform colour of the foundation and the gorgeous releases of dynamic colour layered upon it. This is an evolved manifestation of the “leaving blank” technique practiced in traditional Chinese painting, which not only highlights the spirit of Zen, but also constructs a beauty that comes from the union of the dichotomy between realand- unreal. Ting spent his life in the West, ceaselessly exploring, like a never-ending party, and yet the spring breeze and glorious sunrays rolling into the party naturally originated from the East. Thus, viewers from all corners of the world can experience the artist’s joy intimately, in a way not limited by national boundaries. -Courtesy of Sotheby's Provenance Estate of Frances Klenett, composer, teacher and rare-book dealer. She was married to Eric Salzman, Avant Garde composer and music critic
  • Creator:
    Walasse Ting (1929, American, Chinese)
  • Creation Year:
    1967
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 10.5 in (26.67 cm)Width: 7.5 in (19.05 cm)Depth: 0.5 in (1.27 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
    Very good vintage condition, with some shelfwear and wear on the edges (see images).
  • Gallery Location:
    New York, NY
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU1745214692792

More From This Seller

View All
Abstract Expressionist lithograph, Hand Signed/N Carnegie Museum Trustee Edition
By Walasse Ting
Located in New York, NY
Walasse Ting 丁雄泉 Untitled, (Limited Edition, hand signed Carnegie Museum Trustee Edition), 1972 Abstract Expressionist Lithograph. Hand signed and numbered. Hand signed and numbered...
Category

1970s Pop Art Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Evening Moon, color etching renowned printmaker Signed/N, ex Denver Art Museum
Located in New York, NY
Kathan Brown Evening Moon, 1962 Color etching on wove paper Hand signed, titled, dated and numbered 30/100 by Kathan Brown on the front 18 3/4 × 27 3/4 inches De-accessioned from the...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Landscape Prints

Materials

Etching

Green Cat, etching and aquatint, pencil signed & numbered, rarely seen in market
By Walasse Ting
Located in New York, NY
Walasse Ting 丁雄泉 Green Cat, 1984 Color etching and aquatint on copper plate, printed on Fabriano Rosaspina paper Pencil signed, numbered 178/230, dated 1984 along with artist's perso...
Category

1980s Pop Art Animal Prints

Materials

Ink, Pencil, Graphite, Etching, Aquatint, Mixed Media

Rare offset lithograph poster (signed and inscribed to founder, Tallix Foundry)
By Nancy Graves
Located in New York, NY
Nancy Graves Nancy Graves: A Survey 1969/1980 (Hand signed and inscribed to Dick Polich of Tallix), 1980 Offset lithograph poster (hand signed, dated and inscribed) signed, dated and...
Category

1980s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Prints

Materials

Offset

Wufu Wu, The Five Chinese Blessings Etching on Japanese Kozo paper Signed Framed
By Judy Pfaff
Located in New York, NY
Judy Pfaff Wufu Wu (The Five Chinese Blessings), 1995 Signed, dated, numbered and titled in graphite pencil on the front Edition of 120 (unnumbered) Original etching on Japanese Kozo...
Category

1990s Abstract Abstract Prints

Materials

Etching

Pull Out All Flags, iconic Abstract Expressionist etching aquatint, SIgned 33/50
By Robert Motherwell
Located in New York, NY
Robert Motherwell Pull Out All Flags (Engberg, Banach 263), 1980 Aquatint and etching in colors, on German Etching paper, with full margins Hand-signed by artist, Pencil signed and n...
Category

1980s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Prints

Materials

Etching, Aquatint

You May Also Like

1980's Large Silkscreen Chinese Characters Serigraph Pop Art Print China
By Chryssa Vardea-Mavromichali
Located in Surfside, FL
Chryssa Vardea-Mavromichali (Greek: Χρύσα Βαρδέα-Μαυρομιχάλη; December 31, 1933 – December 23, 2013) was a Greek American artist who worked in a wide variety of media. An American art pioneer in light art and luminist sculpture widely known for her neon, steel, aluminum and acrylic glass installations, she has always used the mononym Chryssa professionally. She worked from the mid-1950s in New York City studios and worked since 1992 in the studio she established in Neos Kosmos, Athens, Greece. Chryssa was born in Athens into the famous Mavromichalis family from the Mani Peninsula. one of her sisters, who studied medicine, was a friend of the poet and novelist Nikos Kazantzakis. Chryssa began painting during her teenage years and also studied to be a social worker.In 1953, on the advice of a Greek art critic, her family sent her to Paris to study at the Académie de la Grande Chaumiere where Andre Breton, Edgard Varese, and Max Ernst were among her associates and Alberto Giacometti was a visiting professor. In 1954, at age twenty-one, Chryssa sailed for the United States, arrived in New York and went to San Francisco, California to study at the California School of Fine Arts. Returning to New York in 1955, she became a United States citizen and established a studio in the city. Chryssa's first major work was The Cycladic Books preceded American minimalism by seventeen years. 1961, Chryssa's first solo exhibition was mounted at The Guggenheim. 1963, Chryssa's work was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in curator Dorothy Canning Miller's Americans 1963 exhibition. The artists represented in the show also included Richard Anuszkiewicz, Lee Bontecou, Robert Indiana, Richard Lindner, Marisol, Claes Oldenburg, Ad Reinhardt, James Rosenquist and others. 1966, The Gates to Times Square, regarded as "one of the most important American sculptures of all time" and "a thrilling homage to the living American culture of advertising and mass communications." The work is a 10 ft cube installation of two huge letter 'A's through which visitors may walk into "a gleaming block of stainless steel and Plexiglas that seems to quiver in the play of pale blue neon light" which is controlled by programmed timers. First shown in Manhattan's Pace Gallery, it was given to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York in 1972. 1972, The Whitney Museum of American Art mounted a solo exhibition of works by Chryssa. That's All (early 1970s), the central panel of a triptych related to The Gates of Times Square, was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art between 1975 and 1979. 1973, Chryssa's solo exhibition at the Gallerie Denise René was reviewed for TIME magazine by art critic Robert Hughes before it went on to the Galleries Denise René in Düsseldorf and Paris. Other works by Chryssa in composite honeycomb aluminum and neon in the 1980s and 1990s include Chinatown, Siren, Urban Traffic, and Flapping Birds. Chryssa 60/90 retrospective exhibition in Athens in the Mihalarias Art Center. After her long absence from Greece, a major exhibition including large aluminum sculptures - cityscapes, "neon boxes" from the Gates to the Times Square, paintings, drawings etc. was held in Athens. In 1992, after closing her SoHo studio, which art dealer Leo Castelli had described as "one of the loveliest in the world," Chryssa returned to Greece. She found a derelict cinema which had become a storeroom stacked with abandoned school desks and chairs, behind the old Fix Brewery near the city center in Neos Kosmos, Athens. Using the desks to construct enormous benches, she converted the space into a studio for working on designs and aluminum composite honeycomb sculptures. The Athens National Museum of Contemporary Art, which was founded in 2000 and owns Chryssa's Cycladic Books, is in the process of converting the Fix Brewery into its permanent premises. Greek Exhibits, European Cultural Center of Delphi (Council of Europe). "Apollo's Heritage"(July 4, 2003 – July 30, 2003). Works by sixteen artists: Giorgio de Chirico, Salvador Dalí, Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas, Nikos Engonopoulos, Yannis Tsarouchis, Giorgos Sikeliotis, Takis, Arman, Fernando Botero, Chryssa, Dimitris Mytaras...
Category

1980s Pop Art Abstract Prints

Materials

Screen

China Night, Lithograph by Terry Allen
By Terry Allen
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Terry Allen, American (1943 - ) Title: China Night Year: 1985 Medium: Lithograph, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: 75 Size: 23 x 30 in. (58.42 x 76.2 cm)
Category

1980s Conceptual Landscape Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Chinese Contemporary Ink Art by Wang Tiande
Located in Atlanta, GA
Artist: Wang Tiande (Chinese b.1960) Title: "Digital Series No.4 C07", 2004 Medium: Chinese ink on paper and cigarette burns Signed and dated lower left Wang Tiande 2004. Original gallery label on verso Frame (wood shadow box under acylic): 52 3/4" x 25 3/4" Provenance: Purchased from Michael Goedhuis, October 23, 2006 An important figure in the Chinese contemporary art scene, in the field of modern calligraphic art particularly, Wang Tiande was born in Shanghai in 1960. After graduating from the Chinese Painting Department at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in 1988, Wang received a doctoral degree in the calligraphy department of the same school. Currently, Wang is a professor at Shanghai Fudan University. His work is held in the permanent collection of many important museums across the globe, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and the British Museum. Known for his revival and reinterpretation of Chinese calligraphy and painting...
Category

Early 2000s Chinese Modern Contemporary Art

Materials

Acrylic, Wood, Paper

Moonlight (Abstract Expressionist mid-century print)
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Sylvia Wald (October 30, 1915 – March 24, 2011) Monnlight, 1954. Screen print on paper, image measuring 14 x 25 inches. Framed measurement: 21 x 32 inch...
Category

Mid-20th Century Abstract Expressionist Abstract Prints

Materials

Screen

Composition - China Ink on Paper signed "Hausmann" - 20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Composition is a drawing in China ink on paper signed "Hausmann", and realized in the 20th Century. Hand-signe on the lower right. Applied on P...
Category

20th Century Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink

Jiang Tie Feng Moonlight Dance Signed Contemporary Serigraph on Paper XXXI/XL
Located in Keego Harbor, MI
An energetic serigraph on paper titled “Moonlight Dance” by Chinese artist Jiang Tie Feng. Hand signed in pencil on the bottom right with an annotation ...
Category

20th Century Prints

Materials

Paper