This is Wifredo Lam’s “The Eternal Presence (An Homage to Alejandro García Caturla)” (detail), 1944, oil and pastel over papier-mâché and chalk ground on bast fiber fabric. Mr. Lam’s art will be discussed June 2 during a talk at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.
“The Multiple Surrealisms of Wifredo Lam” will be the topic of an in-person Art Matters Lecture by Mey-Yen Moriuchi, an art history associate professor at La Salle University in Philadelphia, at 5:30 p.m. June 2 in the Mary Craig Auditorium at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1130 State St.
The Cuban artist Wifredo Lam (1902-1982) is acclaimed for his semi-abstract, polymorphic paintings that draw on African motifs and the Santeria religion, in addition to avant-garde movements such as Cubism and Surrealism. His hybrid animal-human figures and fragmented, flattened compositions are linked to his Afro-Cuban culture, as well as to his experimentation with automatism and surrealist games.
The emphasis on Mr. Lam’s African roots and his encounter with European modernism has neglected the influence of his Chinese culture on his art, according to a news release. Is there a convergence of Chinese and Afro-Cuban traditions that have been overlooked? This lecture explores the impact of Mr. Lam’s Chinese heritage on his artistic production and considers the significance of multiple Surrealisms — European, Caribbean, Asian — present in his oeuvre.
Admission is free for students and Museum Circle members, $10 for SBMA members and $15 for nonmembers. To purchase, go to tickets.sbma.net.
Visitors who plan to attend the event must show proof of being fully vaccinated with a booster (if eligible) or, in some cases, supply a negative COVID-19 test result taken within 72 hours before the event, along with an official photo ID, before entering the venue.
All visitors must also follow SBMA’s mask policy and wear a mask while attending events in SBMA’s Mary Craig Auditorium.
email: mmcmahon@newspress.com
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For more information, call the museum at 805-884-6430 or email kcarl@sbma.net.
