Lot 17
  • 17

Wifredo Lam

Estimate
500,000 - 700,000 EUR
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Description

  • Doble desnudo femenino
  • gouache, fusain, aquarelle et huile sur papier marouflé sur toile
  • 158,2 x 142,8 cm ; 62 1/4 x 56 1/4 in.

Provenance

Balbina Barrera, Madrid (vers 1936)
Collection particulière, Madrid
Acquis auprès du précédent en 1988

Exhibited

Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía et Barcelone, Fundación Joan Miró, Wifredo Lam, 1992, reproduit dans le catalogue p. 69

Condition

Executed on wove paper, laid down on canvas. The canvas is strip lined. There are a few artists pinholes at all four corners and along the edges of the sheet. There are a few small nicks and tears to the extreme edges. The subject is on two joint sheets of paper. The joining has separated in the upper part and is slightly open on the lower part at intermittent points. There is a slight minor 2cm diagonal tear in the brown pigment to the left hand side below the woman's waist. There is a small area of pigment loss to the centre of the right edge possibly original. There is further creasing throughout the sheet possibly inherent to the artist's choice of material, and a few minor scattered paint losses and abrasions. The margins of the work appear time-stained and the medium is slightly fainted. This work is in stable condition.
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Catalogue Note

gouache, charcoal, watercolour and oil on paper laid down on canvas. Executed in 1936. 


The English translation of this note follows the French


Notice de catalogue

Peintre Surréaliste né à Cuba, Wifredo Lam est revenu récemment avec éclat dans l’actualité grâce à la grande rétrospective organisée au Centre Pompidou à Paris et celle actuellement à la Tate Modern de Londres. Artiste latino-américain, d’héritage espagnol et africain, Lam se positionne entre différentes traditions picturales, le surréalisme et une originalité absolue. Doble desnudo feminino et El Pianista sont deux toiles magistrales peintes en 1936 à l’aube de la guerre Civile Espagnole, à laquelle participe l’artiste lors de la défense de Madrid. Boursier lors de son arrivée en Espagne en 1923, Lam se plonge dans l’étude des grands maîtres anciens du Prado avec son mentor le peintre académique et directeur du Musée Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor. Parallèlement, il découvre les mouvements modernistes européens. Très vite intégré dans les milieux avant-gardistes espagnols, il s'initie au travail de Cézanne, Matisse, Braque, Juan Gris et Picasso. Le mouvement surréaliste l’intéresse particulièrement et il développe dans ces années un intérêt pour l’ethnographie et la statuaire africaine.

Ces deux grandes compositions sont fascinantes tant elles sont marquées par l’influence de Matisse, du cubisme, tout en démontrant le vocabulaire très particulier de Lam. Des éléments décoratifs ethnicisant sont visibles à l’arrière-plan des deux nus. L’idée des masques totémiques se profile dans la figure du pianiste. L' artiste engagé et cosmopolite se révèle dans ces oeuvres bigarrées. 

L’année où il peint ces deux toiles, il vient de rejoindre les forces républicaines dans leur lutte contre Franco. Il dessine des affiches anti-fascistes et s'engage dans la direction d'une usine de munitions. La violence des combats inspire sa grande réalisation de 1937 intitulée Guerra Civil où il utilise la même technique, la gouache sur une grande feuille de papier, et le même vocabulaire pictural que dans nos deux tableaux.

En 1938, Lam est forcé de fuir l’Espagne et rejoint Paris où il rencontre Picasso et les Surréalistes. Il entamera alors une autre phase de son œuvre avant de repartir pour Cuba en 1941, où il demeurera jusqu’à son retour en Europe en 1952.


Catalogue note

A Surrealist painter born in Cuba, Wifredo Lam recently made an important come back with the major retrospective currently organized at the Tate Modern in London. A Latin-American artist of Spanish and African origins, Lam plays with different pictorial traditions, including Surrealism and with absolute originality. The Doble desnudo feminine and El Pianista are two masterful canvases painted in 1936 at the dawn of the Spanish Civil War, in which the artist participated in the defence of Madrid. Awarded a study grant upon his arrival in Spain in 1923, Lam threw himself into studying the old great masters of the Prado museum with his mentor, the academic painter and director of the museum, Fernando Alvrez de Sotomayor. At the same time, he discovered European modernist movements. Quickly integrated into the Spanish avant-garde circles, he studied the work of Cézanne, Matisse, Braque, Juan Gris and Picasso. The Surrealist movement particularly interested him and during these years he developed an interest in ethnography and African statues.

These two major compositions are fascinating for their apparent influence by Matisse and Cubism whilst demonstrating Lam’s very specific vocabulary. Decorative, ethnic elements are visible in the background behind the two nudes. The influence of totemic masks can also be glimpsed in the figure of the pianist. This committed and cosmopolitan artist revealed himself in these colourful works.

The year he painted these canvases, he had just joined the republican forces in their fight against Franco. He designed anti-fascist posters and took part in the direction of a munitions factory. The violence of the fighting inspired his great composition of 1937 entitled Guerra Civil where he used the same technique of gouache upon a large sheet of paper, and the same pictorial vocabulary as in our two paintings.

In 1938, Lam was forced to flee Spain and arrived in Paris where he met Picasso and the Surrealists. He then began a different phase of his work before leaving for Cuba in 1941, where he stayed until his return to Europe in 1952.