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Lot Essay
La Pareja (1935), one of Lam's best exhibited and most important paintings of the 1930s, is a beautiful composition of two nude bodies giving their back to the spectator. In the same manner of some of his earlier works, the present painting has an important auto-biographical component and illustrates the artist's own artistic quest. Lam, a young artist influenced by Marxist theories living in Spain's difficult years of revolt, manages to stay away from politically charged issues in his own oeuvre and to remain committed to his own artistic exploration.
The works executed by Lam between 1931 and 1940, mostly on paper, are a reflection of the artist's inner self. By compositionally adhering themselves to a modern arrangement of form and color, the figures in La Pareja act as a breaking point in the artist's career. Matisse and Picasso are obvious references in Lam's early work. Matisse, a Fauve and an admirer of color as the basic tool to create a composition, inspired in Lam the possibility of using thick black brushstrokes to define figures and space. Likewise, Lam adopted and modified colors by using mostly pastels, a trend that lasted until the early 1940s when he returned to Cuba and executed the forest scenes of 1942. Picasso's influence on Lam during this early period was exerted in the conceptual interest to represent the true nature of the "primitive". Compositionally, this was translated into a further simplification of form and an added element of the symbolic and the mythical.
La Pareja excels as a modern composition through the graceful arrangement of its figures. Moving within space, they accentuate their presence through the massiveness and seminal importance given to their bodies. This masterful composition alludes to the story of Lam and Balbina Barrera, his companion at the time and the woman with whom he discovered the beaches of Andalusia. This romantic period was reflected in the artist's work by erotic depictions of women and the use of bright light. Very few other works depict the couple. In this case, one darker than the other, Lam represents himself alongside his lover.
En casa de Julio Ramis, Lam puede hojear muchas revistas de arte traidas de París. Parece inevitable pensar que cuando pintó esta obra, ya había visto alguna reproducción de Las Srtas. De Aviñón de Picasso. En diversas ocasiones, el propio Lam evocó la conmoción que experimentó con el descubriento, casi físico, de las telas de Picasso. Podemos decir que Lam vino a Europa para elevar el debate sobre la relación del artista con "el tesoro legendario de la humanidad" y lo "maravilloso primitivo del mundo", citando las expresiones memorables que desde 1941 empleó Breton a propósito del pintor cubano. La importancia de la desnudez de las figuras en toda la obra posterior de Lam impide pensar en este cuadro como en un simple estudio de desnudos, y, dado que no es fácil que Lam pudiera encontrar modelos negros o mulatos en el Madrid de la época, cabría incluso sugerir que bien puede tratarse de un nuevo autorretrato en sentido literal. Lam reivindica en occidente y ya a lo moderno el color de su piel oscura y el mestizaje en general, tanto el biológico como el cultural. Su obra es un gran monumento a la descolonización, una fuente viva de la que tendrán que beber todos los artistas conscientes que hoy quieran enfrentarse a tan presente problema.
M. Luisa Borras, "Lam en Espaqa, 1923-1938", El Guma, No. octubre-noviembre, 1992.
The works executed by Lam between 1931 and 1940, mostly on paper, are a reflection of the artist's inner self. By compositionally adhering themselves to a modern arrangement of form and color, the figures in La Pareja act as a breaking point in the artist's career. Matisse and Picasso are obvious references in Lam's early work. Matisse, a Fauve and an admirer of color as the basic tool to create a composition, inspired in Lam the possibility of using thick black brushstrokes to define figures and space. Likewise, Lam adopted and modified colors by using mostly pastels, a trend that lasted until the early 1940s when he returned to Cuba and executed the forest scenes of 1942. Picasso's influence on Lam during this early period was exerted in the conceptual interest to represent the true nature of the "primitive". Compositionally, this was translated into a further simplification of form and an added element of the symbolic and the mythical.
La Pareja excels as a modern composition through the graceful arrangement of its figures. Moving within space, they accentuate their presence through the massiveness and seminal importance given to their bodies. This masterful composition alludes to the story of Lam and Balbina Barrera, his companion at the time and the woman with whom he discovered the beaches of Andalusia. This romantic period was reflected in the artist's work by erotic depictions of women and the use of bright light. Very few other works depict the couple. In this case, one darker than the other, Lam represents himself alongside his lover.
En casa de Julio Ramis, Lam puede hojear muchas revistas de arte traidas de París. Parece inevitable pensar que cuando pintó esta obra, ya había visto alguna reproducción de Las Srtas. De Aviñón de Picasso. En diversas ocasiones, el propio Lam evocó la conmoción que experimentó con el descubriento, casi físico, de las telas de Picasso. Podemos decir que Lam vino a Europa para elevar el debate sobre la relación del artista con "el tesoro legendario de la humanidad" y lo "maravilloso primitivo del mundo", citando las expresiones memorables que desde 1941 empleó Breton a propósito del pintor cubano. La importancia de la desnudez de las figuras en toda la obra posterior de Lam impide pensar en este cuadro como en un simple estudio de desnudos, y, dado que no es fácil que Lam pudiera encontrar modelos negros o mulatos en el Madrid de la época, cabría incluso sugerir que bien puede tratarse de un nuevo autorretrato en sentido literal. Lam reivindica en occidente y ya a lo moderno el color de su piel oscura y el mestizaje en general, tanto el biológico como el cultural. Su obra es un gran monumento a la descolonización, una fuente viva de la que tendrán que beber todos los artistas conscientes que hoy quieran enfrentarse a tan presente problema.
M. Luisa Borras, "Lam en Espaqa, 1923-1938", El Guma, No. octubre-noviembre, 1992.