Lalan: Endless Dance

Description

French critic Michel Tapié coined the term “art informel” in Un Art Autre, published in 1952, to describe types of art, often gestural, which were based on highly informal procedures. After the Second World War, there was a swathe of approaches to abstract painting which had in common an improvisatory methodology. Abstract works of this time included tendencies such as lyrical abstraction, tachisme (non-geometric abstract art that developed in Europe in the 1940s and 1950s) as well as matter painting. It mainly refers to European art, but does also embrace American abstract expressionism. An important source of this kind of painting was the surrealist doctrine of automatism.

Xie Jinglan (1921 – 1995), also known as Lalan, extracted the abstract spirit from the movement. She drew on her feminine sensitivity and integrated both Eastern and Western art to establish a unique Abstract expression that immerses viewers in a journey to an enigmatic and boundless domain.

As a result, her works were widely recognised around the world. This Hong Kong exhibition offers a wide range of Lalan’s canvases, works on paper as well as her musical oeuvres, altogether manifesting the artist’s everlasting avant-garde grit.

This exhibition is a part of Le French May.