LAM Wifredo. Untitled, 1937. Gouache on paper. Signed... Lot 257

LAM Wifredo. Untitled, 1937. Gouache on paper. Signed and dated in graphite. 365 x 310 mm. 1937 was a momentous year in the life and work of Wifredo Lam: settled in Spain since 1923, he was going through a profound creative crisis before the outbreak of civil war. In the summer of 1936, he committed himself to the defense of the Republic, notably by producing posters, and in November he took part in the defense of Madrid. Recruited by an arms factory to work on the production of anti-tank bombs, he was intoxicated by the chemicals he was handling and had to go to the Caldes sanatorium in Catalonia in March 1937. It was there that he met the painter Manolo, a friend of Picasso, Braque and Reverdy, who introduced him to African statuary and encouraged him to break away from academicism. Moving to Barcelona in September 1937, Lam returned to painting, producing a large number of works until his departure for France in April 1938, many of which were lost: "I think I did some two or three hundred paintings in Barcelona that I never saw again, because when I left, I gave them to a friend who died. Equipped with a few gouaches and watercolors and a letter of recommendation from Manolo, Lam went to see Picasso as soon as he arrived in Paris. Picasso immediately lent him his support, introducing him to several members of the Surrealist group, as well as Michel Leiris, who enabled him to develop his knowledge of primitive art, and to learn more about the "art of the dead". Pierre Loeb, who organized the Cuban painter's first exhibition in June 1939. Certificate of authenticity from M. Eskil Lam.