The Museum of Modern Art will host the most extensive retrospective exhibition (held in the United States), dedicated to the iconic Cuban artist Wifredo Lam. “Wifredo Lam: When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream” will be on display at MOMA from November 10th, 2025 to April 11th, 2026. [Many thanks to Aica Caraïbe du Sud for their article “Une retrospective Wifredo Lam au MOMA,” 9 January 2025.]
explanation: The Museum of Modern Art has announced Wifredo Lam: When I don’t sleep, I dreamthe most extensive retrospective dedicated to American artists on display at MOMA from November 10, 2025 to April 11, 2026. Spanning Lamb’s prolific career in 60 years, the exhibition depicts over 150 rare artworks from the 1920s to the 1970s to the 1920s: paintings of paintings, collaborative editions of paintings, large-scale paintings, paper paintings, and large-scale paintings. Materials – A significant loan from the property of Wifrede Lamb in Paris. Retrospective reveals how Lamb, born in Cuba, spent most of his life in Spain, France and Italy, aimed to embody the cross-border artist’s figure in the 20th century and build a unique visual style at the confluence of European modernity, African diasporic culture and Caribbean traditions.
[Organized by organized by Christophe Cherix, The Robert Lehman Foundation, Chief Curator of Drawings and Prints and Beverly Adams, The Estrellita Brodsky Curator of Latin American Art; with Damasia Lacroze and Eva Caston, Curatorial Assistants.]
Aika Kareibe du Sude write:
The exhibition explores how Lam, born in Cuba but living abroad for much of his life, has come to represent the idea of a “cross-border artist.” Born in Saguara Grande in 1902, Lam later moved to Madrid to study painting. The exhibition features his early works in Spain. La Guerra Civil (1937), his first monumental work on paper attached to canvas.
In 1938, Lamb moved to Paris, where he met artists and writers such as Pablo Picasso and Andre Breton. In his collaborative work, Lamb created a collection of drawings for Breton’s collection of poetry Fata Morgana (1941), included in the MOMA survey.
Back in Cuba in 1941, Lamb created important works such as: jungle (1942–1943) refers to the tropical Caribbean landscape with a history of sugar plantations and slavery. “Ram’s visionary commitment to making painting a ‘act of decolonization’ has, as he said, changed contemporary art forever,” said Christophe Cherix, chief curator of drawings and prints at MoMA.
The exhibition is the largest LAM exhibition in the United States to date. It follows a retrospective in Hong Kong. Return homeIt was held at the Asian Association earlier this year to pay tribute to his Cantonese roots. [. . .]
Excerpts translated by Ivette Romero. For the original article (in French), please refer to https://aica-sc.net/2025/01/09/une-retrospective-wifredo-lam-aumoma/
[Shown above: Wifredo Lam. The Jungle, 1942-43. Oil on paper on canvas, 94 1/4 x 90 1/2 (239.4 x 229.9 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Inter-American Fund. © Wifredo Lam Estate, Adagp, Paris / ARS, New York 2025.]
