Wifredo Lam (1902-1982)

L'Esprit veillant (The Watchful Spirit)

細節

Wifredo Lam (1902-1982)
Lam, W. (Cuba)
L'Esprit veillant (The Watchful Spirit)
signed and dated 'Wifredo Lam 1944' lower right
oil on canvas
61.1/8 x 50.3/8in. (155.2 x 128cm.)
Painted in 1944

來源

Galerie Pierre Loeb, Paris
Baron B. Urvarter, Bruxelles

出版

Cahiers d'art, XX-XXI, Paris, 1945-1946, p. 365 (illustrated)
Quadrum, n. 3, Brussells, 1957, 'Wifredo Lam et les idoles crepusculaires', p. 37 (illutrated in color)
Phases, n. 9, Paris, 1964, p. 53
M. Fouchet, Wifredo Lam, Barcelona/Paris, Ediciones Polgrafa/Cercle d'Art, 1st edition, 1976, p. 232, n. 365 (illustrated)
M. Fouchet, Wifredo Lam, Barcelona/Paris, Ediciones Polgrafa/Cercle d'Art, 2nd edition, 1989, p. 252, n. 397 (illustrated)
L. Laurin-Lam, Wifredo Lam, Catalogue Raisonn of the Painted Work, Volume I, 1923-1960, S. Acatos, Lausanne, 1996, p. 364, n. 44.83 (illustrated)

展覽

Lige, Muse des Beaux-Arts, 1957, n. 67
Otterlo, Museum Kroller-Muller, Collection Urvater, 1957
Leicester, Leicester Museum and Art Gallery, 1958
York, City of York Art Gallery, 1958
London, Tate Gallery, Paintings from the Urvater Collection, 1958, n. 6. This exhibition later travelled to: Belfast, Museum of Belfast, 1958; Beograd, Beograd National Museum, 1959
Zagreb (Yugoslavia), Zagreb Museum, Zbirka Urvater, 1959
Bruxelles, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Wifredo Lam, 1967, n. 25
Washington, D.C., Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture garden, Crosscurrents of Modernism, Four Latin American Pioneers: Diego Rivera, Joaqun Torres-Garca, Wifredo Lam, Matta, 1967, p. 202, n. 62 (illustrated in color)
Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofa, 1992, p. 91 (illustrated in color)
Barcelona, Fundacin Joan Mir, Wifredo Lam, 1993, p. 75 (illustrated in color)
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Centro Atlntico de Arte Moderno, Cuba Siglo XX modernidad y sincretismo, Apr.-June., 1996. This exhibition later traveled to Palma de Mallorca, Fundaci 'La Caixa', July-Sept., 1996; Barcelona, Centre d'Art, Santa Mnica, Oct.-Dec., 1996.

拍場告示

Please note that the illustration for this lot in the catalogue is a detail.

拍品專文

Sometimes --perhaps only for an instant-- we get a glimpse of what lies behind the forest curtain: horns, feathers, beaks, spikes, eyes, wings, tails, light, leaves, darkness. In the Watchful Spirit these earthly forces come into focus and a presence emerges. Hovering in the center, vigilant and fierce, it returns our gaze. This formidable spirit guards a realm into which we have no entry --an indestructible, unfathomable and timeless world.

The concentration of color in the center of the painting and its strict geometry in the figure of a diamond trinity --evoking at once the stance of a shield and that of creation itself-- give The Watchful Spirit tremendous power, prompting us to reflect upon our own fragile and transient state.

Eskil Lam
Paris, September 1999