Wifredo Lam * (Cuba 1902-1982 Paris) Lot n° 40

(Cuba 1902–1982 Paris) Untitled, 1974, signed and dated (faded), signed and dated on the reverse, oil on canvas, 50 x 40 cm, framed Provenance: Galleria Il Prisma, Cuneo Galleria d’arte Borgogna, Milan Galleria d’Arte Rizziero, Teramo (label on the reverse) Galleria Cafiso, Milan (photo certificate available) European Private Collection Literature: L. L. Lam, E. Lam, Lam. Catalogue Raisonné of the Painted Work, vol. II 1961–1982, p. 460, no. 75 102 with ill. At that time, in the 1950s, we travelled very little. The Milan-Paris route by night train was considered a great journey. This was not the case for Lam, the great nomad of modern painting. Eager curiosity to see and learn drove him to constantly cross oceans from one continent to ano-ther. They say he was always searching for himself, his origins, the ‘voodoo’ myths and the god Changò. Born in the jungle, like Matta and Camacho, his is a world of magic and violence, of spikes, of claws, of teeth, of horns. The primitive forest is portrayed teeming with beings that reproduce its forms: reeds, bamboos, palm trees, ebony, mahogany and cacti, all in a universe of spikes and spear-like shrubs that man must cut down to cross. (Enrico Baj, Il nomade della giungla, in “Wifredo Lam. Cuba Italia. Un percorso”, Silvana Editoriale 2002)