Bare Back Rider 

Walasse Ting created this work, "Bare Back Rider," using watercolors. The painting bursts with vibrant colors, dominated by yellows, blues, and pinks, arranged in broad, gestural strokes. The composition is divided into a clear hierarchy, with the rider and horse centrally located amidst a field of colorful flowers, set against a blue sky. Ting’s work destabilizes the traditional relationship between figure and ground. The woman and horse are outlined, but also dissolve into the background through the similar use of color, blurring any boundary between subject and environment. The horse is not a realistic depiction, but rather a flat, graphic shape used to further flatten perspectival space. The choice of watercolor, with its fluid and transparent qualities, emphasizes spontaneity and immediacy. This suggests that the aesthetic value lies not in illusion, but in the raw, expressive potential of the medium itself. This approach challenges the established artistic values of illusionism. Ultimately, the painting engages with a broader discourse on the nature of representation itself.