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Wifredo Lam Show Goes to LA |
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 Notable Miami Exhibit Travels to MoLAA
Among the many masters of 20th century Latin American art, Wifredo Lam can be noted for his unique contributions. Born Wifredo Oscar de la Concepción Lam y Castilla in Sagua La Grande, Cuba in 1902, his life and art were shaped by the Chinese, African, and criollo cultures of his origins. Stylistically, his work reflects his formal training and affinity for the modernist and surrealist trends of his time.
Lam left Cuba for Europe in 1924. He studied art in Madrid and Barcelona, fought for the republicans in the Spanish Civil War, and moved to Paris in 1938. There he associated with figures in modernism, cubism, and surrealism, including Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró and Max Ernst. He shared in the development of currents in art which were influenced by primitivism, but from a personal perspective marked by his own heritage, his study of the Negritude movement, and his understanding of cultural connections to Africa and Haiti. His return to Cuba in 1941 gave rise to new reflections on the place of blacks in Cuban culture. In 1943 he began “The Jungle,” one of his best-known paintings.
Lam’s childhood was marked by his life with his Afro-Cuban godmother. Through her, he was exposed to the culture and rituals of African diasporic religions, in their Cuban forms – regla de ocha, regla de palo, ancestor veneration, belief in an omnipresent life force in all of nature. These perceptions are reflected in themes prevalent in his work – multicultural figures, metaphorical forms, ritual subjects, organic forms. His work represents a key moment in modernism, with a particular Latin American flavor.
Lam’s works can be found in many of the major museums of the world, including the Guggenheim, the Metropolitan Museum, and the Tate, but the current exhibit of over 60 Lams at the Miami Art Museum is a unique opportunity to see the breadth and depth of his work on its own, not just as part of a 20th century survey.
Lam returned to Paris in 1952, where he lived until his death in 1982. He remained concerned with Cuba, supporting the opponents of the Batista dictatorship, and the populist goals of the early Revolution of 1959. He did not condemn the communist bent of the Revolution in later years, which caused criticism in some quarters of the Cuban exile community. But the brilliance of his work stands on its own, and this singular exhibit attests to that. It also speaks to the maturing of political culture and aesthetic sensibilities in Miami. Perhaps this is the right place to showcase Wifredo Lam’s work, after all.
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