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 th...