PROVENANCE:
Gallery Delaive, Amsterdam
Private collection, Europe

EXHIBITED:
Walasse Ting: Recente Acryls , Galerie BBL, Antwerp, Belgium, November 8 - December 22, 1984

ILLUSTRATED:
Walasse Ting , Gallery Delaive B.V., Amsterdam, 1988, color illustrated

MODEL IN THE ARTIST'S STUDIO
WALASSE TING

From the 1970s onwards, Walasse Ting's painting style evolved from the simplistic monotonal schemes of his earlier years into images exuberant with rich, vibrant colors. The focus of his inspiration and subject of his artworks centered around the most important theme in his life - Women. This characteristic subsequently gained full momentum, of which the creative force reached its apex in the 1980s. The artist created many works of astounding excellence imbued with sensory pleasures and which were vividly moving. This gradually became the hallmark of the artist for which he is best known even to this day. Throughout his life, he has sought after inspiration with a keen sense of perception and created art with the colors gifted by the sun. The use of fluid lines, exaggerated imageries, and brilliant colors became his distinctively unique style of artistic expression, while the subject of women and flowers emphasized the wonders of vitality and youth.

Model in the Artist's Studio was created using the artist's iconic painting style of drip and splash. Whatever the unique charms or varying curves of any woman, he was always able to use his unrestrained colors and uninhibited brushstrokes to immortalize their glamor and appeal. Exaggerated colors of great contrast were selected to create the emotive worlds filled with women, flowers and birds, indulgent cats, and fruits so that we could also share in his generous love and affection; all of these emotions are a glimpse into the deeps of his soul. It was once said that Ting's works are deeply imbued with sensual eroticism; perhaps it is these sensations are the very source of his creative inspiration and the key elements of his life. While eroticism is embodied by the vivid and vibrant colors of his paintings, it is also these sensations that form the flesh and blood of his works, while the brilliant colors serve as an assurance of the vigor of life.

This painting is suffused with the artist's yearning for the natural beauty of women and the human body; it is clear that the spirit of romanticism of European Classicism served as a source of enlightenment for him. In the painting, Walasse Ting included his favorite decorative elements of colorful blossoms and cats. The image, formulated with fluid and carefree splashes of colorful paints as well as fine clean lines, features a peach hued background that complements the crimson shoulder wrap, while the candid use of colors accentuate the soft snowy skin of the model. She holds a colorful fan in front of her, half covering her chest, her eyes seductive yet giving off a sense of shyness, while the fully trusting and confident body language offers a powerful visual contrast.

When we once again view these colorful ink works from the Casanova phase of Ting's career, we can see that the lines are clean and unhesitating as colors boldly leap from one to the other like the rapid succession of ocean waves. With the passage of time, the vibrant colors staining the canvas have come to create a scene of glamorous allurement. Walasse Ting's world did not require the onset of different seasons for it remained eternally in the verdant spring of vivacious color. The artist himself was also like an extraordinary flower, one that leaves behind a stunning burst of brilliance in the minds of his viewers.