"I grew up with Wifredo Lam. Not in a metaphorical sense, but literally: my father, an art collector with a taste for the unusual, owned an “Untitled” Lam that hung in our living room like a gateway to another universe. It was a dense, horned, animal-headed figure—half human, half orisha, half nightmare. I spent several years trying to understand it. … As I walked through MoMA’s halls, I found myself back in my childhood living room, gazing at that “Untitled” painting and contemplating its message. I now believe it was whispering the same message Lam conveyed to the colonizers: You cannot own what you cannot see."
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Sources
Massimo Introvigne, "Wifredo Lam: Raising Orishas at MoMA", Bitter Winter (February 14, 2026)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wifredo_Lam
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Wifredo Lam
Wifredo Óscar de la Concepción Lam y Castilla, known as Wifredo Lam (December 8, 1902–September 11, 1982) was a Cuban artist.
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