Strokes of Awakening – The Early Works of Lalan

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Kwai Fung Hin is thrilled to present Strokes of Awakening, an exhibition featuring the early works of French-Chinese artist Xie Jinglan (Lalan,1921-1995). The exhibition sheds light on the origin of her painting career in the 1950s with over 10 oil paintings and paper works.

In her early works in the 1960s, Lalan constructed her abstract universe with opaque tones of brown, red or blue, often devoid of preliminary drafts or sketches. Such cadence could find its roots in her training in modern dance, which endowed her with precise control over bodily movements to express the inner rhythm.

In 1952, art critic Michel Tapié, who was highly regarded in Europe, coined the term “Art Informel” to describe an abstract painting style which emphasizes intuitive and spontaneous creation, characterized by swift and expressive brushwork. Lalan ‘s early work closely aligns with such artistic approach that refused to fall into any conventional categories.

Lalan’s artistic journey transcended mere technical evolution, intertwining closely with her life experiences. Her art calls for liberated expression of her soul in an era that hardly recognized full-time women artists, nevertheless she lived a challenging yet liberated life, wholeheartedly embracing her creative talent. This exhibition invites us to retrace the origin of her inspiration.

ABOUT THE ARTIST / ORGANISER

The French-Chinese multidisciplinary artist Xie Jing-Lan, known as Lalan, was an accomplished painter, poet, musician and dancer whose avant-garde "integrated art" infused the cultures of the East and West. Inspired by teacher and painter Lin Fengmian, Lalan moved to Paris in 1948 with her first husband, the Chinese modernist painter Zao Wou-Ki, but did not pick up a paintbrush until after their divorce in 1957. Freed from the simplistic label of 'muse', Lalan's pioneering and highly experimental oeuvre was influenced by her singular background as a trained composer and soprano singer, and her willingness to explore new forms of artistic expression such as electronic music and modern dance, which she synthesised with her paintings into performative "Spectacles".

Xie Jinglan was born in Guizhou, China in 1921 to a scholarly family. Her grandfather was a famous intellectual and her father a traditional Chinese literati who encouraged his young daughter's gift for music. Aged seven, she and her family moved to Shanghai and soon thereafter to Hangzhou. In 1937 she entered the Music Department of the Hangzhou School of Art. During her time in Hangzhou, Xie was introduced by her cousin to Zao Wou-Ki. In 1941 they got married in Hong Kong, and in 1948 the couple travelled to Paris to begin their next phase of life together.

Finding themselves at the centre of the art world in the late 1940s, the couple quickly became enamoured with the city's artistic metropolis and world-famous museums. Settling into a studio in Montparnasse where their neighbours included the Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti, they befriended fellow artists such as Sanyu, Georges Mathieu and Pierre Soulages, as well as the poet Henri Michaux who would became pivotal to Xie and Zao's artistic development.

While Zao's painting career gained momentum, Xie continued to pursue her passion for music, studying musical composition at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, and later modern dance at the American Cultural Centre after watching a documentary on Martha Graham. Henri Michaux introduced her to the distinguished avant-garde American-French electronic composer Edgard Varèse, whose theories about the affinities between music and image followed a direction that would later inspire much of Lalan's artistic practice.

In 1957, Xie Jinglan divorced Zao Wou-Ki and moved to St. Ouen, a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris. A year later she married Marcel Van Thienen, a French musician, and changed her name to Lalan. Opening a box of watercolours gifted to her from her new husband, she started a new life as an artist, dedicating herself to painting, music, dance and poetry. Lalan's intuitive artistic vision and freedom of self-expression were the building blocks of a brilliant oeuvre that came to an end when a tragic car accident took her life in 1995. Her works are collected by the Culture Ministry of France, the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Shanghai Art Museum, the Macau Museum of Art, etc.