The exhibition “Wifredo Lam: When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream” is the second-most important retrospective of the artist in the United States. Covering six decades of Wifredo Lam’s prolific career, the show includes more than 130 artworks created between 1920 and 1970, including paintings, large-scale works on paper, collaborative drawings, illustrated books, prints, ceramics, and archival material, with significant loans from the Estate of Wifredo Lam, Paris. The retrospective reveals how Lam, a Cuban-born artist who spent most of his life in Spain, France, and Italy, came to embody the transnational artist archetype in the 20th century.

Born in Sagua La Grande, Cuba, Wifredo Lam (1902-1982) emigrated to Madrid at age 21 to study painting. Organized chronologically, the exhibition opens with a selection of his early paintings from his time in Spain. After nearly two decades abroad, Lam returned to Cuba in 1941. The retrospective sheds light on how his return led to a complete reinvention of his work and the creation of some of his most important paintings, including Jungle (1942-1943).

“Wifredo Lam: When I Don't Sleep, I Dream” is organized by Christophe Cherix, The David Rockefeller Director, and Beverly Adams, The Estrellita Brodsky Curator of Latin American Art, with Damasia Lacroze, Associate Curator of the Department of Painting and Sculpture, and Eva Caston, Curatorial Assistant in the Department of Drawings and Prints.

For more information, visit: https://press.moma.org/exhibition/wifredo-lam/

Wifredo Lam: When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream (Cuando no duermo, sueño)