October 4, 2016
Not all passages lead to a better place – some just send you back to where you came from… such was the fate of Wilfredo Lam, the Cuban Picasso, when he escaped Europe in a cargo vessel in 1940, together with multiple other artists and intellectuals fleeing the Nazis. The US denied him entry – whether for racist reasons or the mundane fact that he was acitizen of a neutral country – Cuba – and thus not eligible for refugee status, who knows.
Point is, that he had to return to Cuba and later chose to live out his successful life and career in Europe. And so it is a European museum, the Tate Modern, that mounts a major retrospective of his work.
The first review, below, struck me with the sentiment of the last sentence – “Perhaps it is time to remind the Americans that there is knowledge to be had beyond the fences they are trying to build. ” Note we are now all seen in that deplorable basket of ignorants, a generalization frequently encountered when I talk to my friends abroad in the context of this election season. Outcome of a freakish election season.
Wifredo Lam: the unlikely comeback of the Cuban Picasso
Lam’s most famous painting is called The Jungle. I think it is a terrific example of mind blowing transitions within a piece of art. The melding of figures, landscapes, botanical and cultural elements and a claimed state of mind works seamlessly, drawing you ever deeper in.
Martha Ullman West
Frankly Friderike, I think any British critic, in light of Brexit and other political events in THEIR country, has a bloody nerve pointing the finger at us. Not that some of our fellow citizens are not equally culpable, they are. Having said that, I think that’s one hell of a painting you posted and I thank you for it.