ABSTRACT

Wifredo Lam’s encounter with Pablo Picasso was as serendipitous as it was decisive. After years of working in Spain, Lam was compelled to leave on account of supporting the losing side in the Civil War. For Picasso, Lam’s ethnicity literally embodied the very qualities from which he drew so much inspiration; these were not qualities Lam needed to acquire; these were qualities with which Lam was “naturally” endowed, qualities Picasso obviously hoped would transfer to him. Though a 20th century black Cuban’s admiration for an 18th century Frenchman may be surprising, one must remember that colonization exerted so powerful a grip that colonized populations often internalized the value system of the colonizer, appreciating cultural achievements only by the colonizer’s standards. Ironically, by instigating the aesthetic appreciation of African artifacts—a change most artists would welcome—Picasso also helped convert them into the very thing he despised: commercial objects that lost their radical edge.