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Reviewed by:
  • Wifredo Lam and the International Avant-Garde, 1923–1982
  • Juan A. Martinez
Lowery Stokes Sims . Wifredo Lam and the International Avant-Garde, 1923–1982. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002. 281 pp.

Considered the "most universal" of Cuban artists, Wifredo Lam (1902–1982) created an Afro-Caribbean vision that, already during his lifetime, received recognition in the highest circles of European, North American, and Latin American avant-garde art. Among his significant contributions to international modern art, as pointed out by Lowery Stokes Sims, was to introduce "the 'primitive' into 'primitivism' " (2). He was conversant with both his traditional Afro-Cuban culture and modern European conventions, successfully inserting a high degree of personal experience and national/regional content into modernist primitivism. More recently, his example has worked to "pave the way for contemporary artists of African, Asian, Pacific, and Native American descent in the international art world" (2).

Lam's current status as a pioneer of modern Latin American art, a member of the international avant-garde, and a predecessor of multiculturalism has generated a proliferation of exhibitions and publications during the last decade. He has been the subject of numerous books, exhibition catalogues, magazine and newspaper articles, and a catalogue raisonné. Most of the studies on Lam, however, have concentrated on one decade of his career, the 1940s, to the neglect of the rest of his production. In this context Sims's Wifredo Lam and the International Avant-Garde, 1923–1982 is a welcome investigation that significantly [End Page 156] enlarges our knowledge of Lam beyond the 1940s. Her book offers an in-depth study of the last thirty years of Lam's life and art and an encompassing critical review of the literature on him.

The first three chapters review the first half of Lam's artistic career, from 1923 to 1947, setting the stage for a more detailed examination of his subsequent work. The following six chapters chronicle events in his life, analyze the critical literature, discuss stylistic developments, and map his place in the international avant-garde after World War II. Of particular importance is chapter 9, which deals with the little-known subject of Lam's late work (ca. 1970–1982). During that decade Lam produced a considerable body of prints and ceramics while further developing his artistic language. The last two chapters make use of new trends in art criticism and art history, such as deconstruction and multiculturalism, to take a fresh look at Lam's work and place in contemporary international art. Notable in this section is the discussion of the uneasy relationship of Lam's work to the concepts of modernism and primitivism. Not least, the book is handsomely illustrated with personal photos as well as black-and-white and color plates of Lam's work and that of other artists.

Sims's major contribution to the literature on Lam is a detailed and critical view of his mature and later work and of its relationship to major international avant-garde art movements, such as Surrealism, the New York School, CoBrA, and Group Phases, as well as to art centers like Paris and New York, Caracas and Havana. She emphasizes that an important aspect of that relationship was Lam's various contributions to international modernism, such as the creation of a "nationalized modern art" (235) and a kind of "psycho-physiological primitivism" (234). Equally significant is her assessment of the growing relevance of and interest in Lam and his work today, due in part to his nomadic life and seminal multicultural art. This book is a must for anyone interested in Cuban, Latin American, or international contemporary art. It should also be of interest to those involved with cultural studies and the concepts of primitivism and multiculturalism.

Juan A. Martinez
Florida International University
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