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<b>WIFREDO LAM'S<em> ÍDOLO</em></b><br>Cuban artist Wifredo Lam's signature style fuses the influences of the European Modern and Surrealist artists of the mid-century with the Afro-Cuban influences of his native country. The artist's representation of Oya, the Yoruba goddess who holds dominion over winds, storms and lightning, was painted in 1944, at the height of his career, and is rich with the mythological symbolism for which he is best known. Dr Lowery Stokes Sims delves into Lam's metaphysical world to decipher the mysterious Oya. <BR><BR>WIFREDO LAM<BR><em>Ídolo (Oya/Divinité de l’air et de la mort)</em>, 1944<BR>157.3 by 127.6 cm.; 62 by 50 1/4 in.<BR>ESTIMATE $2,000,000–3,000,000<BR>Latin American Art, New York <b>Visual vocabulary</b><br>The shapes of the two figures–diamond and triangular heads, elongated chins with ball-like endings and flowing manes–represent elements of the vocabulary that Lam had adapted as a means to visualize the metaphysical. <b>Dreamlike technique</b><br>The loose, freely dripping technique shows Lam in a more spontaneous and process-oriented mode. The paint is concentrated in areas of intensity while the rest of the images hover at the edge of perception. <b>Ecstasy or transmutation</b><br>The main figure is bent backwards in a dramatic arc. The striking pose recalls Lam’s compositions from 1942, where the figures are either in the midst of spiritual ecstasy or transmuting from a European woman’s body into an Africanized one. <b>Spiritual catalyst</b><br>The bird on the lower right could be an allusion to an event from Lam’s childhood, when a bird flapping against his bedroom window both frightened the young artist and at the same time precipitated his spiritual awakening.