Cuban painter, born of a Chinese father and a mulatto mother, Wifredo Lam went to Fine Arts School in Havana and then moved to Barcelona to continue his studies. Running away from the Spanish Civil War, he sought refuge in Paris in 1937. Picasso took him under his wing and had him meet with the Surrealists. Lam joined the movement and André Breton offered him to illustrate his poetic collection Fata Morgana. In 1940, Lam went to Marseille where he obtained a visa to leave for Cuba. He took the plane with a few friends, including Breton and Ernst, and eventually landed in his native land. In 1942, the Matisse Gallery in New York organized the first exhibition of his works. Where Picasso and his contemporaries promote African Art as a new approach to European pictorial tradition, Wifredo Lam, in the other way, influenced by great masters - including Bosch and Goya, uses his mixed race heritage to create a primitive word more universal.
Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :- Lam (Wifredo) - Jouffroy (Alain). L’Antichambre de la nature. Eaux-fortes originales de Wifredo Lam. Paris, Collection Paroles Peintes, Odette Lazar-Vernet, 1966, folio, loose as issued in the original wrappers. First edition with 9 original etchings by Wifredo Lam. Limited to 85 copies. One of the 50 copies on B.F.K Rives paper, signed by the author and the artist.
