Wifredo Lam, The Jungle (La Jungla), gouache on paper mounted on canvas, 1943, Museum of Modern Art, New York. The exhibition Is organized by the Patrick and Beatrice Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Wifredo Lam could break Diego Rivera's record at auctions with a work that vindicates Afro-Cuban roots. 5.0 out of 5 stars 1 rating. Fouchet, Max-Pol. [4] Just as how Lam grew up as part of several communities, so did his art. Wifredo Lam was born in Sagua la Grande, Cuba, on December 8, 1902. “Syncretism and Syntax in the Art of Wifredo Lam.” 175. “Syncretism and Syntax in the Art of Wifredo Lam.” 167. Something that, similar to the Black Atlantic, is not exclusively African, Chinese, European, or creole, but something that exists as a result of the cross-breeding of all these different cultures. Painted in 1944. [8] La Jungla (1943) is a large (239.4 x 229.9 cm) gouache on paper art piece mounted on canvas, that features vibrant colors that resembled the tropical flora Lam observed in Cuba. “Wifredo Lam: A Sketch.” Callaloo34 (Winter 1988): 91-92. [10] Thus, illustrating once again how Lam integrates elements from all his different heritages to create something new. Wifredo Lam. In 1968, Lam was included in the itinerant exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, Dada, Surrealism and Their Heritage. . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996. (99 x 70 cm.) Product description The Jungle, 1943 is a licensed reproduction that was printed on Premium Heavy Stock Paper which captures all of the vivid colors and details of the original. The indigenous populace had been virtually eradicated by European colonists, who in turn imported slaves from western Africa for the labor-intensive cultivation of sugar cane. Yet each interpreted it differently, the one [Lam] toward Afro-Caribbean imagery, the other [Matta] toward an exploration of the psyche in a broader humanist context”. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1976, 188-189. [20] Fuente, Alejandro de la, and Valdés Elio Rodríguez. [1]Through the incorporation of elements from Santería, European Cubism and Surrealism, and West and Central Africa, Wifredo Lam’s La Jungla (1943) illustrates Lam’s Négritude and rethinks Afro-Caribbean identity in the Black Atlantic outside of its Western definition. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian, 1992. The frutas bomba, specifically, “serve as visual puns for breasts” that emphasize “the integration of the female form with the landscape — a long-standing symbolism in both European and African traditions”. “I knew I was running the risk of not being understood. Painted in 1950 Provenance Private collection, Havana. [4] Fletcher, Valerie, and Lowery S Sims. [18] In its own way, Breton’s Surrealism inspired the deconstructive character seen in two remarkable examples of Latin American Modernism: Lam’s La Jungla (1943) and Matta’s Here, Sir Fire, Eat! “Syncretism and Syntax in the Art of Wifredo Lam.” 167. 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Wifredo Lam was a Cuban-born artist, best known for his large scale paintings which reference modernist aesthetics and Afro-Cuban imagery to explore themes of social injustice, spirituality and rebirth. “Wifredo Lam, the Shango Priestess, and the Femme Cheval.” Journal of International Women’s Studies 17 (June 2016): 92. http://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol17/iss3/8. [11], Another way that Lam uses the figures in La Jungla (1943) to decolonize the ideas surrounding it, is by incorporating elements of Santería as key subjects in the painting. Lowery Stokes Sims, the former Curator Emerita for the Museum of Arts and Design, even stated that: Lam’s mixed ancestry summarized the history and culture of Cuba, which from the sixteenth through the nineteenth century was dominated by the influx of people from all over the world. Estimate: €1,300 - €1,600 Description: Etching with aquatint Wifredo Lam (1902 - 1982) - Cuban artist Prints by Wifredo Lam fetch up to 2,500 Euros at international auctions Signed lower right in pencil "Wifredo" Numbered lower left in pencil "3/99" Overall dimensions, framed: 65 x 84.5 cm Good condition This etching with aquatint by Wifredo Lam was made in 1972. He studied in Spain under the same teacher as Salvador Dalí and became a friend of Picasso after moving to Paris in 1938. 1. Annunciation Told Like an Origin Story : Notes on Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Symbolic Interpretation of One of the Most Enigmatic Masterpieces, What You Should Know About the History of Collage, Physicality as an Aesthetic: Encountering Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, Building Bridges: The Top Lots from New York’s Fall Imps & Mods, The Woman Was Lit: Artist Lilla Cabot Perry. As “the first vision ever of modern art from the standpoint of Africa within Latin America”, one cannot analyze the many ways that La Jungla (1943) deals with decolonization without considering the many ways that this painting continues to do so even after the peak of the Afro-Cubans movement.[22]. Lam created a new narrative within the Cuban imagination: rooted in the island’s complex history, his work was an antidote to the picturesque frivolity that mired the nation in stereotype, The Jungle is both enigmatic and enchanting, and has inspired generations of viewers to liberate their imaginations. [16]The image of the femme cheval and the image of the Santería priestess act “not only as protectors and disseminators of Afro-Cuban culture, but also as models of empowerment over and against their white exploiters and colonizers”. 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