Lot Essay
The drawings are divided by date into 1940 and 1941 and are arranged in sequence.
"Wifredo Lam and André Breton met in Paris in early 1939. However, their relationship intensified only after August 1940 in Marseille, where both, following the invasion of France by the German Army - had taken refuge. Wifredo Lam had previously lived and painted in Spain mainly in Madrid, where he was an assiduous student of the great masters in the Prado Museum.
In Paris altogether more diversified perspectives were available to him. He was fully exposed to primitive art forms, such as African and Oceanic sculptures, and to Modern masters particularly Matisse and Picasso. His first exhibition in Paris in June-July 1939 suggested these visual contacts. His pictures, representing one or two figures -often the theme of maternity-, consisted mainly of dense outlines and geometric shapes. In all their simplicity they conveyed deep human emotions like fear, shame or expectation and in their static and serene quality were impressively evocative.
In Marseille, Wifredo and Breton saw each other daily. They met weekdays, together with painters such as Jacques Herold, Oscar Dominguez, Victor Brauner, André Masson and Max Ernst in a café "Le Bruleur du Loup" at the Vieux Port. Sundays, they met at the Chateau "Air bel", Breton's and other selected individuals' living quarters, provided by the American Emergency Committee under the directorship of Varian Fry.
For these meetings, Breton always had some entertaining games "in petto"; these intended to bring subconscious contents to conscious perception, to abolish internal censorship and to reveal the intimate personality of the artist. In the "Jeu de la Verité", absolute truthful answers had to be given to questions however embarrassing. In "Automatic Writing" free associations of the mind were written down, and in the "Cadavre Exquis" the protruding lines of a drawing started by your neighbor had to be continued. The result of these exercices - a playful Rorschach test- was often interestingly strange and surprisingly indicative of a person's frame of mind.
Stimulated by these weekly meetings and their liberating effect on his inner self, Wifredo's pictorical concept changed. His paintings lost their severity and became more playful and diversified. Novel images of flowers, stars, magical creatures, male and female sex-symbols were added, attesting to his newly found spontaneity. André, quick in recognizing Wifredo's inner visionary world, asked him one Sunday afternoon if he would be willing to illustrate a poem he was working on: "Fata Morgana". "Yes", he would, Wifredo answered among the applause of surrealist painters and writers present. "I guess I was baptized today" was his comment later on.
As soon as the Spanish translation of "Fata Morgana" was ready, Wifredo chose the parts he wanted to illustrate. In his quiet little furnished room he drew directly on paper with China ink. No preparatory designs were made. He enjoyed himself immensely since orthodox pictures done with oils on easel were impossible to create. Some of the drawings still exhibited the sculpture-like monolithic forms, but diamonds, strange animals and flowers adorned the simple, bold contours. Wifredo worked with concentrated steady rythms, resting the pen only to pick up more ink. Their richness in mysterious symbols testified to Wifredo's changing concept in art. His psyche suddenly seemed to burst and overflow with images which he painted with utter candor. These were the beginning of a new period in his career.
Seen in retrospect, comparing the works from Spain and Paris up to 1940 and his Cuban "Secret Rites" period (1942-1950) the illustrations for "Fata Morgana" are of great importance. They were a bridge and midway station from which Wifredo set forth for the rest of his life, the road to magic rituals and primitive images, so dear to the surrealist vision of his unconscious.
Breton, who considered Wifredo a very special person, a great talent with an unusual genetic mosaic and archetypical reservoir, who admired in the drawings the equilibrium of elegant Chinese lineation with the intensity of African art, was more than pleased with the illustrations. Both men felt they had accomplished something worthwhile and permanent. The poem and its illustration enhance each other synergistically, representing the freedom of spirit in a world of war and destruction.
Helena Benitez
Saarbruecken, September 27, 1994
"Wifredo Lam and André Breton met in Paris in early 1939. However, their relationship intensified only after August 1940 in Marseille, where both, following the invasion of France by the German Army - had taken refuge. Wifredo Lam had previously lived and painted in Spain mainly in Madrid, where he was an assiduous student of the great masters in the Prado Museum.
In Paris altogether more diversified perspectives were available to him. He was fully exposed to primitive art forms, such as African and Oceanic sculptures, and to Modern masters particularly Matisse and Picasso. His first exhibition in Paris in June-July 1939 suggested these visual contacts. His pictures, representing one or two figures -often the theme of maternity-, consisted mainly of dense outlines and geometric shapes. In all their simplicity they conveyed deep human emotions like fear, shame or expectation and in their static and serene quality were impressively evocative.
In Marseille, Wifredo and Breton saw each other daily. They met weekdays, together with painters such as Jacques Herold, Oscar Dominguez, Victor Brauner, André Masson and Max Ernst in a café "Le Bruleur du Loup" at the Vieux Port. Sundays, they met at the Chateau "Air bel", Breton's and other selected individuals' living quarters, provided by the American Emergency Committee under the directorship of Varian Fry.
For these meetings, Breton always had some entertaining games "in petto"; these intended to bring subconscious contents to conscious perception, to abolish internal censorship and to reveal the intimate personality of the artist. In the "Jeu de la Verité", absolute truthful answers had to be given to questions however embarrassing. In "Automatic Writing" free associations of the mind were written down, and in the "Cadavre Exquis" the protruding lines of a drawing started by your neighbor had to be continued. The result of these exercices - a playful Rorschach test- was often interestingly strange and surprisingly indicative of a person's frame of mind.
Stimulated by these weekly meetings and their liberating effect on his inner self, Wifredo's pictorical concept changed. His paintings lost their severity and became more playful and diversified. Novel images of flowers, stars, magical creatures, male and female sex-symbols were added, attesting to his newly found spontaneity. André, quick in recognizing Wifredo's inner visionary world, asked him one Sunday afternoon if he would be willing to illustrate a poem he was working on: "Fata Morgana". "Yes", he would, Wifredo answered among the applause of surrealist painters and writers present. "I guess I was baptized today" was his comment later on.
As soon as the Spanish translation of "Fata Morgana" was ready, Wifredo chose the parts he wanted to illustrate. In his quiet little furnished room he drew directly on paper with China ink. No preparatory designs were made. He enjoyed himself immensely since orthodox pictures done with oils on easel were impossible to create. Some of the drawings still exhibited the sculpture-like monolithic forms, but diamonds, strange animals and flowers adorned the simple, bold contours. Wifredo worked with concentrated steady rythms, resting the pen only to pick up more ink. Their richness in mysterious symbols testified to Wifredo's changing concept in art. His psyche suddenly seemed to burst and overflow with images which he painted with utter candor. These were the beginning of a new period in his career.
Seen in retrospect, comparing the works from Spain and Paris up to 1940 and his Cuban "Secret Rites" period (1942-1950) the illustrations for "Fata Morgana" are of great importance. They were a bridge and midway station from which Wifredo set forth for the rest of his life, the road to magic rituals and primitive images, so dear to the surrealist vision of his unconscious.
Breton, who considered Wifredo a very special person, a great talent with an unusual genetic mosaic and archetypical reservoir, who admired in the drawings the equilibrium of elegant Chinese lineation with the intensity of African art, was more than pleased with the illustrations. Both men felt they had accomplished something worthwhile and permanent. The poem and its illustration enhance each other synergistically, representing the freedom of spirit in a world of war and destruction.
Helena Benitez
Saarbruecken, September 27, 1994