Wifredo Lam
Wifredo Óscar de la Concepción Lam y Castilla, known as Wifredo Lam (December 8, 1902–September 11, 1982) was a Cuban artist.
Quotes
[edit]- I thought back to Europe being invaded by the Nazi army with great sadness … For me, seeing Europe had been everything. When I came back to Cuba, I was taken aback by its nature, by the traditions of the Blacks, and by the transculturation of its African and Catholic religions. And so I began to orientate my paintings toward the African.
- On painting after returning to Cuba in “Wifredo Lam: Man of the World” (Tate; 2016 Aug 16)
- In the 1950s we were all hungry for travel and new experiences. There was something in the air: the end of World War Two was still fresh in our minds and everyone needed to find an opening up, a way to discover other countries.
- On returning to Paris when Cuba felt unsafe in “Wifredo Lam: Man of the World” (Tate; 2016 Aug 16)
- I wanted with all my heart to paint the drama of my country but by thoroughly expressing the Negro spirit, the beauty of the [visual] art of the blacks.
- On seeing poverty and corruption in Cuba in “Wifredo Lam: the unlikely comeback of the Cuban Picasso” in The Telegraph (2016 Aug 31)
- It was like some sort of hell…For me, trafficking in the dignity of a people is just that: hell. I refused to paint cha-cha-cha.
- On adopting a new form of painting in Cuba in “Wifredo Lam: the unlikely comeback of the Cuban Picasso” in The Telegraph (2016 Aug 31)
Quotes about Wifredo Lam
[edit]- I grew up with Wifredo Lam. Not in a metaphorical sense, but literally: my father, an art collector with a taste for the unusual, owned an “Untitled” Lam that hung in our living room like a gateway to another universe. It was a dense, horned, animal-headed figure—half human, half orisha, half nightmare. I spent several years trying to understand it.
… As I walked through MoMA’s halls, I found myself back in my childhood living room, gazing at that “Untitled” painting and contemplating its message. I now believe it was whispering the same message Lam conveyed to the colonizers: You cannot own what you cannot see.- Massimo Introvigne, "Wifredo Lam: Raising Orishas at MoMA", Bitter Winter (February 14, 2026)
