Lot Essay
Two years after his return from Europe, Wifredo Lam having used extensively themes of Cuban santeria in paintings such as 'La Jungla,' 'Mofumbé,' 'Malémbo,' and others, turned his eyes toward nature as seen realistically in all its splendor in his own backyard in Buen Retiro, Mariano Havana. One of the results of this endeavor is the painting La Fruta Bomba which depicts several trees, their branches adorned with large oblong fruits ressembling heavy female breasts.
Curiously enough this small, gender-specific tree--carica papaya--and its fruit has sexual connotations in the vernacular language. The female tree with small bulb-like white flowers can bear up to ten large fruits at a time, each fruit with orange to pink creamy flesh surrounding a cavity of dark lustrous seeds. Their name 'papaya' is also synonymous for the vulva. Similarly sexually connotative is the male tree, which has starlike flowers, bears no fruit and is called 'el mamóm' or the sucker.
In Wifredo's painting La Fruta Bomba, 1944, the delicately outlined trees and fruits give the impression of early morning light and a gentle breeze that plays in the branches. Within all of Wifredo's work in the Forties, it represents one of those rare peaceful moments that the artist experienced while enjoying his own backyard in Cuba.
We are grateful to Helena H. Benitez for her assistance in writing the above essay for the present lot.
Curiously enough this small, gender-specific tree--carica papaya--and its fruit has sexual connotations in the vernacular language. The female tree with small bulb-like white flowers can bear up to ten large fruits at a time, each fruit with orange to pink creamy flesh surrounding a cavity of dark lustrous seeds. Their name 'papaya' is also synonymous for the vulva. Similarly sexually connotative is the male tree, which has starlike flowers, bears no fruit and is called 'el mamóm' or the sucker.
In Wifredo's painting La Fruta Bomba, 1944, the delicately outlined trees and fruits give the impression of early morning light and a gentle breeze that plays in the branches. Within all of Wifredo's work in the Forties, it represents one of those rare peaceful moments that the artist experienced while enjoying his own backyard in Cuba.
We are grateful to Helena H. Benitez for her assistance in writing the above essay for the present lot.