Wifredo Lam

WIFREDO LAM (Sagua la Grande, Cuba, 1902 – Paris, 1982).
“Personaggi,” 1979.
Color etching on handmade paper, print no. 98/125.
Signed and numbered in pencil.
Printed by Giorgio Upiglio, Milan, 1979.
Bibliography: Dominique Tonneau-Ryckelynck and Pascaline Dron, *Wifredo Lam, œuvre gravé et lithographié. Catalogue raisonné*, Musée de Gravelines, 1994, p. 79.
Measurements: 26 x 19.5 cm (print); 51 x 34.5 cm (paper).

Created during the final stage of Wifredo Lam’s career, “Personaggi” distills the fantastical vocabulary he had developed over decades around hybrid figures and anatomies undergoing continuous metamorphosis. The image eschews a concrete narrative to construct one of those universes populated by ambiguous presences that characterize Lam’s work, where the Surrealist legacy, European avant-garde experimentation, and references linked to Afro-Cuban culture converge.

The print was produced at the Milan workshop of Giorgio Upiglio, one of the leading Italian master printers of the second half of the 20th century, with whom Lam maintained a close collaboration during his final years.

Wifredo Lam was a pivotal figure in Latin American modernism and developed a language of his own in dialogue with Cubism and Surrealism, while also incorporating references from the Caribbean and the traditions of the African diaspora. After his years in Europe and his contact with artists such as Picasso and the Surrealists, he returned to Cuba in 1941, a period during which he consolidated some of his most recognizable motifs. His graphic work occupied an important place in his body of work and is documented in a specific catalog raisonné. His work is extensively represented in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which holds more than fifty works by Lam and recently dedicated a solo exhibition to his career.