Wifredo Lam (1915 - 2012)

Wifredo Lam, a luminary of surrealism, is known for his large-scale paintings and drawings that blend Western techniques with distinctly Afro-Cuban cultural references. Lam was born in Sagua La Grande, Cuba in 1902; his father is Chinese, and his mother is an Afro-Cuban. His body of work reflects Cuban history, spiritual traditions (such as Santería and Vodú), social injustice, and the perils of war. Notably, Lam’s work is influenced by the 1930s Négritude movement, whose anti-colonial ideology proudly emphasized the value of African diasporic culture amidst the backdrop of Eurocentric ideals. The exuberance in Wifredo Lam’s work, as well as its deft social critique, marked his legacy as distinct in the canon of modern art. After graduating from Havana’s Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro, am traveled to Europe to further his studies at the Museo del Prado in Madrid. Lam studied under Fernando Álavarez de Sotomayor y Zaragoza, the curator of the Museo del Prado and former teacher of Salvador Dalί. During this time, Lam was greatly motivated by the studies of political corruption, and he went on to use his work as a way of condemning the horrors of war. He moved to Paris in 1938, where the artist communities were excited by the non-European cultures and fascinated by Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. Lam was particularly appealing to these artists including Pablo Picasso and Andre Breton who introduced him to European art movements such as Cubism, Surrealism, and Primitivism. In 1940, due to the instability of the political party and the arrival of the Nazis in France, Lam escaped and returned to Cuba and was soon confronted with extreme difficulties. Shocked to see how the African population was exploited and treated, Lam sought to conserve and revere the African culture of Cuba through his works during this time. He was motivated by the country’s situation; thus, strongly invested himself in the representation of the local culture and the exploration of the African spirit. In Lam’s mature style, he combined his feelings and knowledge all together.

Personnage, an oil painting in 1969, was painted by Lam when he was celebrated internationally across the globe, receiving numbers of retrospectives at well-known institutions. As an Afro-Chinese Cuban artist born in Cuba and raised in a sugar farming province, Lam was influenced by many artists of his time including Pablo Picasso and Andre Breton, and he absorbed multiple styles and interpretations in his artistic creations. Through his works, one is able to trace the roots of Surrealism, Cubism, as well as the Cuban culture that accompanied Lam before his formal artistic training in Europe. Lam learned from the formal qualities of Cubism and Surrealism and employing the techniques to show the Afro-Cuban religion and sprits which he was fond of. This work shows Lam’s matured style using abstracted and geometrically shaped compositions in the construction of figures and movements. He juxtaposed multiple figures of different origins and sources, including human, animals, and plants side by side.

Provenance

Galerie Lelong, Paris, France Private Collection, Belgium

Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY

Literature

Michel Leiris, Wifredo Lam, Milan, Italy, 1970, No. 192, illus. np.

Max-Paul Fouchet, Wifredo Lam, Paris, France, 1976, No. 168, illus. p. 138

André Verdet, "Wifredo Lam" in Terre d'Europe, XVIII, Bruxelles, 1978, No. 55, illus. np.

Max-Paul Fouchet, Wifredo, Second Edition, Paris, France, 1989, No. 168, p. 142

Manuel López Blázquez, Wifredo Lam, 1902 – 1982, Madrid, Spain, 1996, No. 49, illus. np.

Lou Laurin-Lam & Eskil Lam, Wifredo Lam: Catalogue Raisonné of the Painted Works, Volume II, Paris, France, 2002, No. 69.59, illus. pp. 133, 322