Wifredo Lam's First Major Retrospective in 25 Years at Nantes

The Musée des beaux-arts de Nantes presents a retrospective of Cuban painter Wifredo Lam from April 29 to August 29, 2010. Curated by Blandine Chavanne and Anne Tronche, it is the first major retrospective of the artist in a quarter century. Lam, of Chinese and mixed-race heritage, was celebrated by André Breton, Michel Leiris, and Aimé Césaire. The exhibition positions Lam's work at the crossroads of Cubism, Surrealism, and abstraction, while resisting reduction to exoticism. Lam famously declared his painting would not be 'pseudo-Cuban dance music' but a 'Trojan horse' releasing hallucinatory figures to disturb exploiters. The accompanying catalog is published by Fage éditions. Philippe Forest wrote the review for artpress.