Wilfredo Lam and the International Avant Garde, 1923-1982

by Sims, Lowery Stokes

• ISBN13: 9780292777507
• ISBN10: 0292777507
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-05-01
• Publisher: Univ of Texas Pr

Summary

With its signature style that marries Cubism and Surrealism with Afro-Cuban and Caribbean motifs, the art of Wifredo Lam occupies a unique position in the history of modern art. Like many modern artists, specifically Pablo Picasso, Lam participated in the primitivist movement, drawing inspiration and imagery from non-western, pre-technological cultures. Yet, unlike European and Euroamerican primitivists, Lam, who was a Cuban of Spanish, African, and Chinese descent, was engaging with his own cultural heritage in his works. His authenticity as both "primitive" and "primitivist" challenges the fundamental tenets of primitivism and makes Lam an ambiguous, fascinating figure in twentieth-century art. This wide-ranging study explores Lam's enduring contribution to world art history--the reclamation and projection of an African identity within mainstream art. Lowery Stokes Sims surveys Lam's work, focusing on the period from 1947 onwards, in which he demonstrated the viability of nationalist pursuits within modernism to a new generation of artists. She traces his career and life and the critical reception of his work in Cuba and Latin America, the United States, and Europe as each locale predominated in his career. This masterly assessment of Lam's later work demonstrates the evolution of primitivist concepts in modern art from the specifically ethnographic to the more psychic and existential. What emerges from Lam's story is the fate of Surrealism in the postwar era as it permutated into international artistic movements such as the CoBrA, the Group Phases, and the International Situationists.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The "Primitive" within "Primitivism": Lam's Encounter with the School of Paris

Mediating the Sacred and the Profane: Lam's Cuban Work in the 1940s

Myth and Totemism: Lam and the New York School, 1942-1952

Surrealism after World War II: Lam in Europe, 1947-1960

"Lo Maravilloso" and the Antillean Ethos: Lam in Cuba and Latin America, 1946-1960

The Demise of Surrealism: Lam and the U.S. Art Scene, 1950-1980

The Artist in the Revolution: Lam in Cuba, 1960-1982

A Shaman for Modern Times: Lam in Europe, 1960-1982

New Means and New Media: Lam's Late Work, 1970-1982

The "Deft Juggler of Cultural Modes": Lam in the Postmodern Context

Toward a New Art History: Lam Scholarship in the Twenty-first Century

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.