Pioneering Wifredo Lam found his voice through his stunning artwork
Afro-Cuban roots to fabulous recognition for Wifredo Lam
Wifredo Lam found his voice
Wifredo Lam was a man born between worlds. His heritage, a blend of Chinese, African, and Spanish, mirrored the artistic crossroads where he found his voice.
Early on, Lam felt a disconnect from his Afro-Cuban roots, and he distanced himself from his ethnic and cultural backgrounds, choosing instead to pursue artistic success.
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Then, Pablo Picasso reminded him of the power held within his heritage.
3 Pivots & 1 Diversion
Three pivots and one diversion outline Wifredo Lam’s (1902-1982) artistic development. He was born in the small Cuban town of Sagua la Grande near a sugar plantation.
His Guangdong-born father was well-educated and versed in Chinese calligraphy. His Cuban mother had Spanish/Congolese roots; she instilled in him a sensitivity for African poetry and a curiosity for the European pictorial tradition.
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His godmother introduced him to the Afro-Cuban religion Santeria (a religion that mixes African beliefs and customs with Catholicism), developed in the West Indies by enslaved Africans uprooted from their homeland.
Lam’s first pivot was his small-town escape when he left for Havana at the age of fourteen to study portraiture painting. By twenty-one, he exhibited at the annual salon and received a grant from his hometown to study painting in Europe.
Pivot 1 – Havana to Madrid
Arriving in Madrid in 1923, he formally studied under a conservative painter focusing on traditional techniques and at a more experimental art school known for its non-conformist approach.
Like all aspiring artists, he spent much time admiring art in the national museum, the Prado, where he was exposed to artists like Francisco Goya, Henri Matisse and Salvador Dali.
Diversion 1 – Spanish Civil War
During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), he was diverted from artistic pursuits to work in a munitions factory and as a militiaman in defence of Madrid on the side of the left-leaning Republicans.
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The war distracted him from painting, but fatefully, he was incapacitated by poisoning from handling chemical products in the munitions factory and so took up painting again.
Pivot 2 – Wifredo Lam meets Pablo Picasso
After fifteen years of living in Spain, Lam was compelled to leave on account of supporting the losing side in the Civil War.
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At thirty-six, he experienced his second pivot when he arrived in Paris with little more than a few paintings and a letter of introduction to Pablo Picasso. In his book Race, Anthropology, and Politics in the Work of Wifredo Lam, Claude Cernuschi describes the meeting as follows:
Upon meeting Lam, Picasso could not help showing him an African sculpture from his collection. “You should be proud,” Picasso exclaimed; “Why?” Lam asked; “Because this was made by an African,” Picasso replied, “and you have African blood in you.”
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To have this titan of the art world affirm his heritage ignited a dormant pride within Lam, from being indifferent to his Cuban-African heritage to embracing and drawing inspiration from it.
Pride ignited by natural endowments
For Picasso, Lam’s ethnicity literally embodied the very qualities from which he drew so much inspiration; these were not qualities Lam needed to acquire; these were qualities with which Lam was “naturally” endowed, qualities Picasso obviously hoped would transfer to him. “I think there’s some of my blood in your veins,” he told Lam, “you must be a relative of mine, a cousin.”
Picasso adopted his new cousin into his vibrant circle, which included renowned painters like Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, Joan Miro, and Fernand Leger.
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Art critics, dealers, and poets like Andre Breton (Surrealism’s founder) and Michel Leiris. Leiris becomes Lam’s confidant and guide, leading him on visits to the collection at the Museum of Mankind, where he embraces what at the time was referred to as primitive art.
Like other Surrealists, he replaces faces with what resembles African masks. Unlike other Surrealists, he avoids stereotyping Africans.
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Living in Paris during the peak of Surrealism, under the direct influence of the founders of Cubism (Braque and Picasso) and fueled by this newfound appreciation for his heritage, Lam synthesises his own style – a fusion of European modernism and Afro-Cuban traditions.
Lam’s breakthrough came at a 1939 Solo exhibition in Paris, organised by Picasso’s art dealer Pierre Loeb and attended by art royalty that included painter Marc Chagall and sculptor Alberto Giacometti.
Pivot 3 – World War II return to Cuba
At this event, the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA) bought his painting Mother and Child, his first sale to an institution.
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In 1941, World War II forced Lam back to Cuba, a homecoming that provided his third pivot.
Here, surrounded by the vibrant culture he once distanced himself from, Lam fully embraced his Afro-Cuban heritage and authentically integrated it into his artwork.
He did this by adding the flora and colours of Cuba and symbols from Santeria into his art, depicting supernatural beings merging with the natural world, replacing faces with masks and humans with hybrid human-animal-plant figures with exaggerated breasts, buttocks and genitalia.
All these elements are in Lam’s 1943 painting, The Jungle, which portrays hybrid male and female figures with crescent-shaped and horsehead faces, bodies blending human, animal, and plant imagery within a crowded jungle filled with sugarcane and banana leaves.
The painting works to create a new narrative for Cuba, to reverse the stereotypical picturesque frivolity while exposing the reality of labouring Cubans at the mercy of the industrial production of sugarcane.
This painting, now owned by MoMA, epitomises his artistic development.
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Lam’s journey wasn’t without its struggles. He was considered an outsider in Cuba due to his European education, a black man to some, not black enough to others.
Art expressed complex mixed-race experiences
Yet, he persevered. Lam used his artistic style to express his own complex experiences as a mixed-race individual and sought to promote and sustain modern Afro-Cuban culture against the colonial stereotypes promoted by tourism, big business and government.
Wifredo Lam remains the most renowned painter from Cuba.
His story, a testament to the human condition, is one of self-discovery, fueled by pivotal moments, a willingness to change and a transformative reminder from Pablo Picasso that heritage matters.
He became a champion for Afro-Cuban culture, leaving behind a legacy that inspires artists to embrace their unique heritage.
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The Wifredo Lam: Homecoming exhibition at Asia Society Hong Kong Center provides a wide panorama of Lam’s key artistic periods, including prints, personal memorabilia, and paintings.
Text & photos Martin Wray
