Wifredo Lam

Interesting exhibition at Tate Modern looking at the life and work of the Cuban artist Wifredo Lam.

I loved the early more figurative work in this show and was fascinated to read about his time in Spain during the Civil War and his escape of France during the Second World War. I fell in love with the picture I have used on this post called Hanging Houses III which oddly reminded me of the tall houses in Hebden Bridge which are basically one house on top of another on different streets. I also loved his pictures from Spain of the view from his window. In this period you can also see the influence of Picasso with flat faced figures based on African masks.

However I did not respond so well to the later work done after he returned to Cuba which is more surreal in style and draws on African-Caribbean culture. I did like his multi-coloured brush work where one brush stroke picked up many colours but I found the hybrid human/animal figures strange and I didn’t really relate to them.

I was more interested in his life than his art in this later period and the cross over with people I had come across before like Roland Penrose, who ran the gallery which hosted Lam’s first London show. I had been interested in his relationship with Helena Holzer, a medical researcher as they seemed an unlikely couple and felt quite disappointed when she remained in New York to resume her medical research when he was refused permanent residency in the US.

Closes on 8 January 2017

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