Lalan (1921 – 1995) had a life of legend. Being the first wife of Zao Wou-ki, she was a composer, dancer and painter.
Lalan was born in a family of scholars in Guizhao, China. Talented in music and dancing, she studied music in Hangzhou Academy in 1938. Since 1948, she settled in Paris with her husband and learnt modern dance and electronic music. She began her journey of painting in the 1950s. Her works were collected by the Culture Ministry of France, Musee d’ Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Shanghai Art Museum, Macau Museum of Art, etc.
Inspired by her music and her dancing, Lalan’s abstract paintings were driven by an inner voice and motions from within. From her early abstract paintings with vivid calligraphic lines and symbols, through the subtle and introspective landscapes inspired by the spirit of traditional Chinese paintings in Song and Yuan Dynasties in the 1970s, she went further to the delicate and rhythmic abstract paintings intertwined with dancing movements in the late period. Ignoring any trends, she only did what she believed.
Singing in Colours and Dancing in Ink - Retrospective Exhibition of Lalan (Works of 1958-1994)
Exhibition period
25 November 2016 – 11 February 2017
Location
Kwai Fung Hin Art Gallery, G/F, 20 Ice House Street, Central, Hong Kong
