Wifredo Lam
One of the great artists of the Modernist art movement, Wifredo Lam was greatly influenced by his cultura as well as by the styles of his contemporaries. The son of a Chinese father and African/Cuban mother Lam drew and painted his surroundings: the African religious traditions of Orisha worship and the lives of the freed African slaves he lived among. Lam studied his craft at Havana’s Escuela de Bellas Artes but soon moved to Madrid where he learned technique with from those who’d taught Salvador Dali and befriended artists like Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro. His signature style blends Surrealism, Cubism along with African and Afro-Cuban art and colors harkening back to his African religious traditions. His masterpiece “The Jungle,” which depicts masked figures emerging from a jungle, was created when he returned to Cuba where he perfected his style. Lam used his art as a statement about his Africaness without apology or explanation.
