In this video, you will learn about the work of one of the most revered Cuban artists by the surrealist elite: Wifredo Lam. To help you navigate the video, we recommend answering these questions as you go along:
How did his gallery define Wifredo Lam, and why do you think these definitions are important?
Why do you think they placed so much emphasis on their ethnic ancestry?
What does Transculturation mean?
Where did his art education begin?
Why do you think Paris has been privileged as the centre of his artistic breakthrough?
Why did Lam want to study the European academic artistic language?
What does the metaphor "Cheval de" mean, and why do you think Gerardo Mosquera used it to define Lam?
How did the Spanish Civil War affect Lam?
How did the Surrealists categorise Lam?
What role did Picasso play in Lam's life and work?
What was Lam's criticism of Picasso's study of ethnographic art?
What are the consequences of Picasso's and Breton's gesture of seeing ethnographic art only as a poetic language and taking away its meaning?
How did Lam resist this behaviour?