579 - Wifredo Lam (1902, Sagua la Grande, Cuba – Paris, 1982)

Wifredo Lam (1902, Sagua la Grande, Cuba – Paris, 1982) Untitled Oil on canvas. (ca. 1972). Approx. 25 x 35 cm. Signed lower right. Signed again on the reverse of the canvas and inscribed illegibly. Presumably mounted on studio stretcher bars. Laurin-Lam/Lam 72.64. We thank Mr. Eskil Lam for his helpful guidance in cataloging this work. • The painting was created around 1972 in Lam’s studio in Albissola Marina, a gathering place for the avant-garde circle around Lucio Fontana and Piero Manzoni • It combines central motifs of his work: the horned heads of the Orisha Elegguá and echoes of the “Femme cheval” • Lam’s standing in 20th-century art was cemented not least by the first comprehensive U.S. retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York Wifredo Lam had already led an eventful life spanning continents when he settled in Albissola Marina, Liguria, in the early 1960s. Born in Sagua la Grande, Cuba, in 1902, he set off for Europe in 1923, studied in Madrid, and became acquainted with Pablo Picasso and the circle of Surrealists around André Breton in Paris. It was not until his return to Cuba in 1941—after nearly two decades abroad—that he developed the visual language that would make him famous: In his paintings, the myths and rituals of Afro-Cuban Santería merge with the achievements of Cubism and Surrealism to create a wholly unique, hybrid world of humans, animals, and plants. In 1962, Lam set up a studio in Albissola, where he would work for two decades. At the time, this town with a long tradition of ceramics was a vibrant hub for the avant-garde, where Lucio Fontana and Piero Manzoni were also active. During these years, Lam refined his repertoire of figures: The backgrounds become increasingly monochromatic, often applied only as a glaze, and the pictorial focus centers entirely on the line. This work, created around 1970, belongs to this late creative phase and demonstrates how sparingly Lam now employs his artistic means. Against a dark, violet-tinged background, two round, horned heads emerge—the characteristic symbol of Elegguá, the orisha of paths and thresholds, who appears repeatedly in Lam’s work. One glows in bright yellow, the other is plunged into deep darkness; both are outlined with a few confident strokes. Behind them rises a structure of pointed, angular forms reminiscent of the “Femme cheval”—the horse woman who, in Santería, embodies a believer possessed by an Orisha and has been one of Lam’s central motifs since the 1940s. The small format thus condenses into a confined space what has defined Lam’s work for decades: the encounter between European modernism and the visual world of his Cuban heritage. The significance of this work in 20th-century art is underscored by the major 2025/26 retrospective “When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which presented his entire body of work spanning six decades for the first time in the United States. Exhibition: Hallowed Ground. Tanguy, Lam, Penalba, Cárdenas, Di Donna Gallery, New York 2024. Provenance: Galleria d’Arte Spagnoli, Florence; Gruppo ’73, Florence, on the reverse of the canvas with a typographic label and stamps; Porro & C., Milan, Nov. 29, 2007, Lot 101; Private international collection. Taxation: subject to regular taxation (VAT: Regular Taxation).