About Lalan
The French-Chinese multidisciplinary artist Xie Jing-Lan (1921-1995), 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".