Cuba celebrates birth of Wilfredo Lam

By Karen Juanita Carrillo

Cuba is commemorating the 105th birthday of Wilfredo Lam, the Cuban-born Afro-Chinese painter who became a world-renowned artist.  Many of the island-nation’s cultural institutions will feature programming that looks at Lam’s life and the works he created. 

The Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro (San Alejandro Fine Arts National Academy) – which Lam attended as a youth – plans to have screenings of documentaries on the artist, including “Wilfredo Lam” the film made in 1978 by Humberto Solás, and the 82-minute film “Ya era otoño en Paris” by Jorge Aguirre Ramírez which recalls Lam’s final days as his life drew to a close in Paris. (DVD copies of “Ya era otoño en Paris” are available in English, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese here.) Lam’s “Abalocha” will be exhibited at Havana’s FEU (Federation of University Students) House, and photos of the artist will be on display in “Simplemente Lam” a photographic exhibition by Ramón Martinez Grandal at the Fototeca de Cuba (Cuban Photographic Library).  The Havana-based Centro Wilfredo Lam/Wilfredo Lam Contemporary Art Center will also have its regular exhibitions of the artists’ work.  (You can view a virtual tour of the Centro here.

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