Wifredo Lam and La Jungla

1. Wifredo Lam and La Jungla By Kateryna Radchenko

2. Wifredo Lam Wifredo Lam, sometimes misspelled Wilfredo, was born on December 8, 1902, in Sagua la Grande, Cuba. His multicultural background comes from his mother’s Afro-Cuban lineage and his Chinese father; his religious upbringing was initially Catholic. In his art, we see influences from the religion Santería, Later on, him and his family moved to the other side of the island to Havana in 1916, where he attended the Escuela de Bellas Artes [School of Fine Arts]. During his schooling, he sketched a lot of tropical plants that he saw in the botanical gardens which is a trait he kept in his professional art career. He is considered one of the greatest artists of the 20th century.

3. Art Influences After Lam finished his schooling in Havana in 1923, he went traveling around Europe amid the Surrealist and Cubism movement. He worked with several artistic mentors such as the Cubist pioneer, Pablo Picasso. These experiences helped influence the Cubism and Surrealist aspects in his artwork. After leaving Barcelona, he moved to Paris in 1938 where he began his mentorship with Picasso in Paris where he “encouraged his interest in African art and primitive masks” (Guggenheim). Picasso was a very significant person in his life; he opened many doors in the art community for Lam including doors to different influences of the modern art movement such as the founder of Surrealism, André Breton. Picasso also opened the door for Lam to New York, which was the first time (but not the last) he ever stepped foot in the cultural hub and held an exhibition at the Perls Galleries. Pablo Picasso

4. Grande composition, 1949 Your Own Life (Ta propre vie), 1942

5. The Jungle (La Jungla), 1943 Museum of Modern Art, NYC

6. What influenced the Painting? • When Lam returned to Cuba in 1941, he saw the humiliating conditions of his home where the Afro-Cuban population were ostracized by society. Even though slavery had ended, the descendants were still living in poverty, dealing with racism and exploitation, and the women were being exploited for prostitution. • “I wanted with all my heart to paint the drama of my country, but by thoroughly expressing the black spirit, the beauty of the plastic art of the blacks…. I knew I was running the risk of not being understood.… But a true picture has the power to set the imagination to work even if it takes time” (MoMA). • Lam saw these racial tensions in his home and wanted to bring out this ostracized population out into the world and let their culture be noticed. Lam realized that his position and experience in the predominately European art world would allow him to be a representative for Cuba, who would be listened to by this European society.

7. What influenced this painting? Cont’d. • “In paintings such as The Jungle (Fig. 33), Lam portrays a primitivist representation of his culture pushed to the point of excess. His composition borders the mockery of the concept of Cuba held by the Western world as a primal, uncontrolled, and menacing culture, and consequently deauthorizes it” (Fierro). • This perspective that Lam portrays can be similar to the ridiculous perspective or mentality that the New Yorkers had when they saw Afro-Cuban immigrants and their culture. They believed that all third-world countries were savages, uneducated, and taboo. • A particular aspect in Afro-Cuban culture that has been labeled taboo and uncivilized is one of their religions, Santeria. Santeria is a religion that originated centuries ago in West Africa during slavery that combined African religions and Catholicism (due to the dominant European presence at the time). This religion is very common in the Caribbean especially Cuba. It is also practiced in the United States including New York City.

8. What influenced this painting? Cont’d. • Santería Influences: • The dark, enclosed, and crowded jungle was used to show that the characters had to practice their forbidden religion in the deep forest. The colors of the picture also suggest a gloomy and dark theme. The figures are also hybrids of animals and humans which reflects his experiences with Santeria and other African spiritualisms. He also includes African masks for some of the figures in the painting which are reflective of Santeria practices in the uses of masks. • Lam had a personal experience in New York where he was immediately stereotyped as mysterious and savage. Three year after his exhibition in New York in 1943, he came back to the city to be met with critics who were shocked when they saw him drink whiskey like other Americans because they honestly thought he drank blood for a living (Fouchet).

9. What influenced the panting? cont’d. • Lam purposefully depicts the figures in The Jungle a certain way using exaggerated geometry. While he was in Cuba, he was disgusted that the mulatto or Afro-Cuban women were being pushed into prostitution. • “When Fide Castro came to power, there were over 60,000 whores in Havana alone” (Fouchet). • In order to depict that terrible situation, he exaggerated the rump and made it seem as though it was extending outward toward the audience. Lam said he wanted the figures to look obscene and reflective of the condition that the women were going through.

10. How is this painting relevant? • Even though Lam painted The Jungle to embrace and represent the Black population of Cuba because of the hardships they went through in a racially divided nation in the 20th century, racism against the Afro-Cuban population is still common today in America as well. The Afro-Cuban population are still discriminated against in many aspects of society, especially in the workforce. • “[Afro-Cubans] inherited more than three centuries of slavery during the Spanish colonial era. Racial exclusion continued after Cuba became independent in 1902, and a half century of revolution since 1959 has been unable to overcome it…. much remains to be done to address the structural inequality and racial prejudice that continue to exclude Afro-Cubans from the benefits of liberalization” (Zurbano). • The most lucrative sector of Cuba’s society, tourism, has excluded the Black population from working there as well as other jobs that include direct interactions with visitors such as hospitality. • “The most frequent argument revolves around the concept of “pleasant aspect” (buena presencia), a racialized construct that claims that blacks cannot be hired for these jobs due to aesthetic considerations and to the alleged preferences of the tourists” (Fuente)

11. How is this painting relevant? • The North American Congress of Latin America also gave an example of how Afro-Cuban women were eroticized: • “…blackness is used in the sector’s advertising campaigns as an icon of sensuality, good music and fun. Thus, whereas the Tropicana cabaret is almost invariably advertised through the faces (and bodies) of mulatto women…” • This erotization of Afro-Cuban women could have followed Afro-Cuban female immigrants to New York City and residents would have seen them not only uncivilized people but as exotic women. • Santeria and the Afro-Cuban immigrants are also still seen in a negative way by outsiders such as being barbaric and cultic . • “For decades, Santeria has operated in a muted underground here, its rites confined to basements and living rooms far from the condemning eyes of outsiders who labeled it hoodoo…. Once dismissed as a ghetto religion practiced only by the Caribbean poor and uneducated… Hollywood has further blemished the religion's reputation by routinely portraying santeros as Satanists. And in New York City, Santeria is frequently blamed for any incident hinting of the occult. (New York Times)

12. How is this painting relevant? • Lam also claimed during an interview that the scissor in the image was representative of the need for the Cubans to sever its constant shadow of colonialism. This can also be interpreted as the need for Cubans and other Latin American countries to develop and keep their own identities instead of assimilating to the shadowing colonists of their past or surrounding dominant culture. This idea has been seen in many Latin-American immigrant communities in New York City. They have been seen to keep their cultural identity, customs, and traditions with them to the point that they are ‘Hispanicizing’ the city. Instead of assimilating to the New York culture, we can see multiple aspects of Latino culture such as music, food, and language. • Spanish is now the second most common language in New York; “Not surprisingly, Spanish (and Spanish Creole) speakers make up a bulk of the non-English population — about 25 percent of the city, or 1.87 million residents” (Venugopal).

13. How is this painting relevant? • Negritude Movement • It was an effort during the 1930/40s that was very similar to the Harlem Renaissance in New York. It was inspired by the Harlem Renaissance in that they were intellectual movements with a focus was to empower the Black population of the world and to express their cultural identities. The literary movement was also inspired by the African Diaspora (it evolved to include the arts as well) after the consequences of slavery and colonialism. They felt that their African culture was being attacked and demeaned, so this movement was developed to promote their African identity/culture. • Lam’s work was seen as an effort to hold onto and share his Afro-Cuban/Caribbean roots: • Lam's incorporation of Santeria iconography in his art was an important part of his Negritude--his desire to valorize Afro-Cuban cultural elements that were in danger of amputation. When Lam returned to Cuba in 1941, Afro-Cuban religions were still largely associated with demon worship and brujeria or witchcraft by white elites and Afro-Cuban professionals (Fuente 154-5). It was through paintings such as The Jungle that Lam helped to elevate the status of Afro-Cuban cultural forms such as Santeria. (Sato)

14. Bibliography • Guggenheim, 2018 The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/wifredo-lam. • “Wifredo Lam”. Art Experts. Wifredo Lam Biography, www.artexpertswebsite.com/pages/artists/lam.php. • “Wifredo Lam: Mix-Master, Modern Artist.” MoMA | Wifredo Lam. The Jungle. 1943, MoMA Learning, www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/wifredo-lam-the-jungle-1943. • The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. “Wifredo Lam.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 29 Mar. 2017, www.britannica.com/biography/Wifredo-Lam. • Tate. “Négritude – Art Term.” Tate, www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/n/negritude. • Linsley, R. (1988), WIFREDO LAM: PAINTER OF NEGRITUDE. Art History, 11: 526–544. • Sato, Paula. "Wifredo Lam, the Shango priestess, and the Femme Cheval." Journal of International Women's Studies, vol. 17, no. 3, 2016, p. 91+. Academic OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A460060794/AONE?u=nysl_ca_dmvacces&sid=AONE&xid=9f7e8d23 • Lam, Wifredo, and Gerardo Mosquera. “‘My Painting Is an Act of Decolonization’ an Interview with Wifredo Lam by Gerardo Mosquera .” 20 June 1980, www.tate.org.uk/file/wifredo-lam-large-print-guide. • Zurbano, Roberto. “For Blacks in Cuba, the Revolution Hasn't Begun.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 23 Mar. 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/opinion/sunday/for-blacks-in-cuba-the-revolution-hasnt-begun.html. • Fuente, Alejandro de la. “The Resurgence of Racism in Cuba.” NACLA, North American Congress on Latin America, 25 Sept. 2007, nacla.org/article/resurgence-racism-cuba. • Fierro, Maria, "Wifredo Lam: Negotiating Transcultural Modernism and Artistic Identity in Europe, The Caribbean, and The United States" (2011). All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs). 481. • Alvarez, Lizette. “After Years of Secrecy, Santeria Is Suddenly Much More Popular. And Public.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 27 Jan. 1997, www.nytimes.com/1997/01/27/nyregion/after-years-of-secrecy-santeria-is-suddenly-much-more-popular-and-public.html. • Fouchet, Max-Pol. Wifredo Lam. Polígrafa, 1986. • Venugopal , Arun. “The Many Languages of New York City.” WNYC, 7 Dec. 2012, www.wnyc.org/story/255668-blog-census-languages-new-yorkers-speak/.