Wifredo Lam : the imagination at work / organized in partnership with Gary Nader ; with contributions by Kaira M. Cabanas, Alexander Alberro, Alexandra Chang, Samantha Noel, Michaela de Lacaze Mohrmann, Andria Hickey.
"Published on the occasion of Wifredo Lam: The Imagination at Work, November 10-December 18, 2021. Co-curated by Gary Nader and Andria Hickey, with curatorial contributions by Dr. Michaela de Lacaze Mohrmann. Pace Gallery"--Colophon. Includes bibliographical references.
Contents:
Afterword / Andria Hickey. Essays. Circa 1940 : animating intimate relations / Kaira M. Cabanas -- Searching for Wifredo Lam : reclaiming, identities, and context / Alexandra Chang -- The poetics of black-Cuban sovereignty in Wifredo Lam's art / Samantha A. Noel -- Selected paintings -- Selected sculptures -- Lam's crossings and critical positions : a chronology / Michaela de Lacaze Mohrmann -- List of works -- Afterword / Andria Hickey.
Summary:
This chronological survey traces the Cuban painter and sculptor Wifredo Lam's (1902-82) career from the late 1930s to the '70s, spotlighting the radically syncretic visual language he developed in response to modernism's Eurocentricity. Born to a Chinese father and Congolese Iberian mother, Lam placed heritage centrally in his work. Early in his career, he associated with major figures such as Picasso, Matisse and Braque, and he was struck by their integration of African iconography. Although he greatly respected these European artists, the dissonance between their aesthetic choices and cultural experience was not lost on him--especially given the racism and exploitation that characterized Cuban society under the US-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. Lam spent the rest of his career endeavoring to decolonize modernist art. From his early Surrealist works to his later preference for geometric abstraction, African sculpture and the Afro-Caribbean diaspora consistently informed his practice. Published for an exhibition at Pace, The Imagination at Work includes paintings, works on paper and rarely seen bronze sculptures, as well as a biography of Lam's life and career by the Latin American art scholar and curator Michaela de Lacaze Mohrmann, who made curatorial contributions to the gallery's exhibition.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.