Over the years, I have gone on discovering Wifredo Lam. He has been mentioned in different Blog chapters but always within permanent collections. I have to admit today that in the early years, I took one of his paintings for a Picasso….and seeing certain paintings of his today, it didn’t really surprise me. Especially as I learnt that he knew Picasso…This though was a retrospective of his work at the Beaubourg.
Wifredo Lam (1902-1982) was a precursor of a cross-cultural style of painting, infusing Western modernism with African and Caribbean symbolism. He must have been one of the very rare artists who was in contact with all the movements of his time …and all those that I follow. Cubism, surrealism, CoBrA…but he never lost sight of the world around him and took on the struggle to paint the drama of his own country, Cuba.
The above photo plunges us at once into the exhibition. Was he an attractive man? I think there are later photos which make him look less brutal….but in my book, he was a handsome creature.
This exhibition brought together almost 300 works and many archival documents and photos. It was going to be a block buster. Having just opened, there was virtually no-one there which gave me the opportunity of moving around freely.
His first years in Spain (1923-1938) he seems to be trying out different techniques. Like so many artists he was inspired from the avant-gardes and when you see this painting, the likeness with the Matisse is striking. (Self portrait ll, 1938)
One of his earlier paintings, Casa Colgadas, lll, 1927 immediately brought to mind portraits which we would be seing later. Not really cubism, as I don’t think he has met Picasso yet but surely has seen his work. There is a little Gaugin there too. The Masters are beginning to push him away from what had been a very realistic approach.
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| Casa Colgadas, lll, 1927 |
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| Composicion, l, 1930 |
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| 1938 Paris, Marseille, 1941 |
Between 1938 and 1941, mostly the war years, he is in Paris and Marseille. The influence on European art of the African sculpture may well have surprised him.
The faces become simplified into geometric masks. This violence may well have had something to do with the fact that he had recently lost his wife and child from tuberculosis.
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| Figures, 1938 |
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| Nu couché, 1938 |
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| Le Reveil, l, 1938 |
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| Jeune femme sur fond vert clair, 1938 |
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| 1939 |
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| Figure, 1939 |
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| Mère et enfant, ll, 199 |
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| Autoportrait, lll, 1938 |
However, there are wonderful moments of freedom in his « cadavres exquis » in collaboration with André Bréton, Jacques Hérold, Oscar Dominquez with their collective works and also other painters.
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| 1940 |
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| Bréton, Hérold, Lam, Cadavre exquis, 1940 |
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| Bréton, Lamba, Lam et autres - Dessin collectif, 1940 |
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| Bréton, Dominquéz, Lam et autres, 1940 |
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| Bréton, Brauner, Dominquez, Lam, Lamba, Enrst, Masson, dessin collectif, 1940 |
In this particular series Max Ernst, Victor Brauner and also part of the team….
Perhaps I should not say that these are moments of freedom as he escaped to go to Marseille in 1940, with the entry of the German troops in Paris. These sketches though do give some light relief after studying the portraits.
From 1941-1952, it is back to Cuba and the Americas. That makes 18 years in Europe. He landed in Martinique with by now a very close friend, André Breton. There he met Aimé Césaire, the poet, who like Lam had the same rejection of relationships of racial and cultural domination.
His return to Cuba on the other hand was a painful period. By then Cuba was struck by endemic corruption, racism and poverty. Even if this return is difficult, his work is filled with energy, animal, vegetal and Caribbean figures…or they evoke this for me.
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| Le Sombre Lalembo, Dieu du carrefour, 1943 |
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| La Jungle, 1943 (painting which brought him fame in New York) |
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| Lumière de la forêt, 1942 |
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| 1944 |
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| 1946 |
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| Portrait de H.H., around 1943 |
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| Anamu, 1942 |
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| 1944 |
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| 1942 |
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| Le Bruit, 1943 |
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| 1945 |
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| 1947 |
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| Dessin préparatoire pour le mural du Jardin Botanique de l'Université de Caracas - 1956-57 |
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| La Réunion, 1945 |
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| La Fiancée, 1950 |
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| Fresque, 1951 |
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| La Fiancée de Kiriwina, 1949 |
But it was back to Paris in 1952 and this time, he began to exhibit with the CoBrA group and with his
friend Asger Jorn. An artist I like immensely. The work is spontaneous
and in many cases quite minimalist.
Lam was travelling. In between Caracas, Havana, Albissola (Italy) and Zurich during 1952-1967 and another period between Paris and Albissola from 1962-1982. Ceramics became very important during these years and those I saw are quite surprising.
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| ?? |
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| Fruits de la rébellion, 1975 |
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| Préhistoire, l, 1975 |
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| Les deux couteaux, 1975 |
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| Vase, l, 1975 |
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| Préhistoire, ll, 1975 |
It was around this period that I stopped in my tracks. His work was far from simple. Was it all the travelling he did in these years? Egypt, India, Thailand, Mexico? I back tracked and started looking at many of the paintings again. With a second viewing, there was so much more to see. In fact, at times his work was overpowering with its detail. He has so many encounters…the forest, the swamp, the monster, the night, the rain, all those beasties that terrify me, snakes included, fear and of course the energy of life.
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| Le Corps et l'âme, 1966 |
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| Les Témoins, 1968 |
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1947
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| 1961 ( a little like the Chinese?) |
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| Je pense, je vois, je sens, 1964 |
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Visible invisible, 1971
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1943
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Visible invisible, 1971
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A la fin de la nuit, 1969
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1969
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| Contre une maison sèche, 1976 ( l to lX) |
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| Contre une maison sèche, 1976 ( l to lX) |
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| Contre une maison sèche, 1976 ( l to lX) |
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| Contre une maison sèche, 1976 ( l to lX) |
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| La Brousse, 1958 |
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| Contre une maison sèche, 1976 ( l to lX) |
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| 1958 |
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| Umbral, 1950 (a favorite of mine) |
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| Totem à la lune, 1955 et Totem pour la lune, 1955 |
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| 1943 |
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| 1943 |
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| Clairvoyance, 1950 |
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| Les Mains croisées, 1951 |
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| 1943 |
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| 1943 |
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| 1943 |
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| Côr de Pêche, 1946 |
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| Yoruba Ritual, 1946 |
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| 1981 |
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| 1981 |
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| 1981 |
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| Ajouter une légende |
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| Nativité, 1947 |
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| Oiseau Ferraille, 1965 |
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| Les Abalochas dansent pour Dhambala dieu de l'unité, 1970 |
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| 1947 |
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| Les Noces, 1947 |
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| La lumière de la jungle, 1944 |
To know and understand Lam’s work (and frankly I think that I am just beginning to see how intricate it is) time is needed. Thank goodness I can study his work on the screen…and depending on the crowds, maybe I’ll even go back and see it a second time around.
Over the years, I have gone on discovering Wifredo Lam. He has been mentioned in different Blog chapters but always within permanent collections. I have to admit today that in the early years, I took one of his paintings for a Picasso….and seeing certain paintings of his today, it didn’t really surprise me. Especially as I learnt that he knew Picasso…This though was a retrospective of his work at the Beaubourg. 
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