Walasse Ting first came to prominence in the 1950s, shortly after arriving in Paris. Ting's works were shown in joint exhibitions with members of the CoBrA avant-garde art group, such as Pierre Alechinsky and Asger Jorn, and he became an active member of the European art scene. In 1958, Ting relocated to New York, urban landscape enriched the colors of his works, and the freewheeling, liberal atmosphere was an important source of creative inspiration for him. The women, flowers, birds, animals, etc. that he saw all around him were transformed into elements in his creative art.

"I Eat Rose (Kiki de Montparnasse)" is one of his rare works on canvas. The muse depicted in the painting is Alice Prin (1901 - 1953), better known as "Kiki," who was a legendary figure in the Montparnasse district. Active in artistic and cultural circles in the 1920s, she modeled for Paris-based artists on a regular basis. With her dazzling blond hair and rich red lips holding a rose, the woman depicted in Ting's painting has an intoxicating allure.

Works by Walasse Ting can be found in collections of many world's greatest modern art museums, including the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Chicago Art Institute, the Detroit Institute of Arts Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Tate Modern in the U.K., the National Museum of Asian Art in Paris, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, the Shanghai Art Museum, and the Hong Kong Museum of Art.