Wifredo Lam: When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream

About the Author

Christophe Cherix is The Robert Lehman Foundation Chief Curator of Drawings and Prints at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Beverly Adams is the Estrellita Brodsky Curator of Latin American Art in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at MoMA.

Anny Aviram is a Senior Paintings Conservator at MoMA.

Miriam Basilio is an Associate Professor of Art History and Museum Studies at New York University.

Roberto Cobas is a Curator at Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana.

Terri Geis is the Co-Director of Masters of Fine Arts in Art and Media and Associate Professor of Arts at NYU Abu Dhabi.

Damasia Lacroze is a Curatorial Assistant in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at MoMA.

Laura Neufeuld is an Associate Paper Conservator at MoMA

María Elena Ortiz is Curator at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Lowery Stokes Sims is an independent curator and art Historian.

Catherine Stephens is the Sally and Michael Gordon Conservation Scientist at MoMA.

Wifredo Lam (1902-1982) left his native Cuba at age 21 to pursue a career in painting. He studied first in Spain, where he fought in the Spanish Civil War, before moving to France in 1938. There he met artists and writers such as Pablo Picasso, André Breton, and the Surrealists. Fleeing the Nazi occupation, Lam returned to Cuba in 1941, where his work became increasingly experimental, both technically and in the development of his unique visual language. Returning to Europe in 1952, where he spent the remainder of his life, Lam expanded his material production into printmaking and ceramics, while continuing his visionary approach to painting, which he called "an act of decolonization."