Yemaya, Wifredo Lam (1902-1982)

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE NEW ORLEANS COLLECTION

Wifredo Lam (1902-1982)
Yemaya
signed and numbered 'LAM 10/30' (on the lower edge)
gilt bronze pendant
2 x 1 ⅜ in. (5 x 3.4 cm.)
Executed in a numbered edition of 30 by Artcurial, Paris.

Provenance:
Artcurial, Paris.
Private collection, New Orleans, acquired from the above on 15 November 1988.

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Lot Essay

We are grateful to Eskil Lam for his assistance cataloguing this work.

Much like his friend Pablo Picasso, Cuban artist Wifredo Lam was a great innovator who worked in a variety of media from painting and sculpture to jewelry and ceramics. This striking gilt bronze pendant was modeled after a bronze sculpture that Lam unveiled in Paris for the 1979 Artcurial exhibition Wifredo Lam, oeuvres historiques, oeuvres récentes: peintures, pastels, sculptures, bas-reliefs. The title of the pendant, Yemaya, refers to the Santería goddess or orisha who is said to be the mother of all living things. References to Santería, a Caribbean syncretic religion, are a defining characteristic of Lam’s work.

A truly international artist, Lam left Cuba at a young age to study in Spain, and then later Paris where he befriended Picasso, Matisse, Miró, Léger as well as many other artists. The outbreak of World War II sent Lam back to the Caribbean where he lived in Cuba for a decade before splitting his time between Paris, New York and later Italy.