“A multifaceted artist, Lalan explored many distinct disciplines: first music, then dance, poetry, and painting. She gravitated toward integrated art, creating shows that combined music, choreography, painting, and set design. Lalan composed the music, created the choreography, designed the sets, and painted the paintings with the aim of bringing these disciplines together in the same space.”
Among the Chinese modern artists of the 20th century, Lalan stands out as an unique figure who is not only a rare example of female artist, but also extremely innovative in her pioneering practices. Soon after Lalan arrived in Paris in 1948, she pursued advanced studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, focusing on Fugue and composition. In the mid-1950s, she learned music production techniques under the guidance of "the Father of Electronic Music," Edgard Varèse. Since the early days, she always had a strong interest in modern dance, and later received training in "Graham technique" at the American Center in Paris. Her abstract painting is a fusion of avant-garde artistic practices that incorporate music and dance, as exemplified in the present work, Untitled.
During her t.mes in France, Lalan was inspired by the post-war European movement Art Informel, characterized by spontaneity and intuition. This echoes with Lalan's desire to break through traditional boundaries. Her experiences and training in dance, music, and visual arts have assimilated into a highly individualistic style of her own. Lalan’s early abstract works primarily feature black, brown, and vermilion, using bold brushstrokes to animate calligraphic lines. What makes this work unique is the artist's choice of fabulous and vibrant shades of golden yellow, red and purple, which are rare among her contemporaneous works.
Lalan only began painting around the late 1950s, but her painting career quickly caught up, and she had already achieved considerable success by the early 1960s. In 1960, Lalan held her first solo exhibition at Galerie R. Creuze in Paris, showcasing her first abstract works inspired by Chinese oracle bone scripts and ancient bronzes. The director of Musée Cernuschi, Vadime Elisseeff, wrote the bulletin for the exhibition. In 1963, she had her second exhibition at Paperback Gallery in Edinburgh. Both of these events attest to the significant progression of her artistic career. The present work was painted in the same period.
According to the Lalan Archive, the artist created a total of only 502 works during her lifet.mes , of which 204 were oil paintings. Only 60 of these were created during the first developmental phase from 1957 to 1969, testifying to the extreme rarity of the present work. This work was included in the 2014 exhibition "Breeze from Paris" at Eslite Gallery, Taipei, an exhibition that surveyed Lalan's artistic journey alongside Parisian artists such as Sanyu, Pang Yuliang and Hsiung Ping-Ming.
「謝景蘭才藝多面，一生在不同的藝術領域探索，始於音樂，繼而舞蹈、詩歌，還有繪畫。她走向綜合藝術，創作包含音樂、舞蹈、繪畫、舞臺設計的表演項目。她親自作曲、編舞、設計舞臺，以及繪畫，將這些不同範疇的藝術共置一室。」
在二十世紀一眾中國現代藝術家之中，謝景蘭是富有獨特魅力的一位，她不僅是罕見的女性代表，其創作實踐更是極具創新性。謝景蘭赴法以後，於巴黎國立高等音樂舞蹈學院深造，學習賦格與作曲。五〇年代中，她跟隨「電子音樂之父」埃德加・瓦雷茲學習電子音樂製作技巧。她一直以來對現代舞的興趣亦十分濃厚，更曾在巴黎的美國中心接受「葛蘭姆技法」訓練，其抽象繪畫創作即是融合了音樂與舞蹈的前衛藝術實踐，而《無題》正完美體現此一獨特風格。
在留法期間，謝景蘭承襲歐洲戰後不定形藝術運動（Art Informel）的抽象手法，隨性而發、重視直觀，與藝術家渴望突破傳統界限的追求互相契合，並將她在舞蹈、音樂和視覺藝術三環緊扣的鍛煉與經歷，蛻變成極具個人特色的風格。謝景蘭早期的抽象作品以以黑、深藍、棕褐與朱紅為主調，並運用大膽的筆觸在畫面上舞動著書法性線條；而本作的獨特之處，則是藝術家選用了瑰麗無比的金色與紫色調，屬同期作品中罕見。
謝景蘭約在五〇年代末才開始執筆作畫，然而她的繪畫事業奮起直追，在六〇年代初已頗有成績：1960年，謝景蘭在巴黎的R. Creuze畫廊舉行了她的第一次個展，獲賽努奇博物館館長瓦蒂姆·艾利塞夫為她的展覽撰寫前言，展示了她受中國甲骨文、金石圖案及書法線條啟發而創作的首批抽象畫作；1963年，她在愛丁堡的Paperback畫廊舉辦了第二次展覽。兩次豐富的展歷引證其藝術事業節節上升，而本作正是創於此時期。
據謝景蘭文獻庫的紀錄，她一生共創502件作品，當中油畫有204幅，而創於發展第一階段的1957至1969年間的油畫只有60幅，因此可見本作的珍罕程度極高。《無題》曾參與2014年在台北誠品畫廊舉辦的「來自巴黎的微風」展覽，該展覽回顧了謝景蘭的藝術歷程，並與巴黎藝術家如常玉、潘玉良和熊秉明等作品同場展出。
拍賣紀錄
