T’ing Yin-Yung's legacy as an artist began in the early part of the 20th Century. T’ing, along with Lin Fengmian and Wu Dayu, was among an avant-garde group of educators and artists who first brought modern Western art practices to China. While studying oil painting in Tokyo, T’ing was inspired by his study of the Fauves, and the works of Henri Matisse in particular. 1929 marked an important turning point in his career as his budding interest in Chinese ink painting drew him to the works of the revered Chinese eccentric painter Bada Shanren (1626—1705), which he began collecting in earnest.

As an artist standing at the crossroads of Eastern and Western art, the encounter with Matisse and Bada Shanren unleashed an astonishing chemistry that transformed T’ing into one of the most radical Chinese artists of his time. Although the subjects may appear conservative at first glance, the innovation and vivacity that perfectly fuse the Western and Eastern influences as shown in Untitled (Lot 151) and Figures; & Red-Head Bird on a Rock (Lot 150) breathe fresh air into a centuries-old medium. The playfulness and naiveté inspired by the Fauves and Bada in T’ing’s works were unseen and unparalleled among his peers and paved the road for his successors to come. Through T’ing swift and expressive brushstrokes, those highly stylized and exaggerated animals and Chinese-opera figures are not simply given forms but also given life.