Wilfredo Lam

WILFREDO LAM (Sagua La Grande, Cuba, 1902 - Paris, 1982).
"Sans titre - XXe siècle plate #5", c. 1977 -1979.
Etching and aquatint on Arches paper. Copy 52/99.
Published by XXe siècle, Paris.
Signed and justified in pencil.
Measurements: 33 x 39,5 cm (print); 50 x 66 cm (paper).
Wifredo Lam was formed in Havana and, from 1923, he continued his studies in Madrid under the tutelage of Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor, entering in contact with the work of masters like Francisco de Goya, Pieter Brueghel the Elder and The Bosch. In 1938 he settled in Paris, where he met Pablo Picasso and joined the surrealist circles linked to André Breton. During World War II he remained in the Caribbean and, upon his return to Cuba, he developed a personal language in which he fused European avant-garde with Afro-Caribbean traditions and Yoruba symbology. Since the 1950s he alternated his residence between Paris, Cuba and Italy, consolidating a wide international recognition. His work was the subject of important European retrospectives and today forms part of collections such as those of the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.