The moving art of Lalan

The Chinese touch

Although Lalan left China in her mid-20s and came into her own as an artist only in France, her adopted country, her core artistic sensibilities remained noticeably Chinese. In the video of her last recorded performance, Lalan is seen practicing qigong — a traditional Chinese form combining physical movement with breathing and meditation. Her moves bring to mind the swirling splashes of paint bespattering the canvas in her later paintings, creating dark unknowable shapes in earth tones in the process.

The influence of the East is also apparent in the presence of Chinese calligraphy, literati features and Daoist philosophy in her paintings — ideas she made her own and served up in her inscrutable, singular style.

"There is an element of calligraphy in some of her most iconic paintings," says Tiffany Law, assistant curator at the ASHK. "It's in Duel of Words, Quarrel between Light and Dark, 1963. You see the brush strokes mimicking the calligraphic act. There are traces of a Chinese character, but it's not very well etched, more like a symbol."