The Latin Post-Impressionist

Among Picasso, Matisse, and Miro, there was Wilfredo Lam. This painting was a nice little find while at the Chicago Institute of Art. Born in Cuba, Lam studied under the same teacher that taught Picasso at the museum of El Prado. Fled Spain after getting involved in the Spanish Civil War, and relocated to Paris bringing a Caribbean flare to the Parisian cafes.

His originality is undisputable. With Chinese and African backgrounds, Wilfredo Lamb expressed his vision with beings unknown but familiar to us.

The object of the chair is a recurring theme in his Art. In one of his famous works, Lamb places a chair as posing surrounded by an undistinguishable and overwhelming jungle.

As sign of civilization among ancient and independent beauty, the chair also represents an unmatched symbolism. From farming country in 1920's Cuba, the chair is where workers rest, converse, and return to themselves after evaporating under a Caribbean Sun. The chair is where a person is himself. A chair posing surrounded by jungle carries the essence of the rest of us.