(Sims 2002). At their invitation and instigation he would eventually come to establish a studio in the ancient ceramic village of Albisola, outside of Genoa, where Asger Jorn also settled. In this context Lam would find the respect and stature commensurate with his achievement and a new home basis after the political changes in Cuba in 1959 with the Castro revolution. Indeed, the Cuban critic Mario López Oliva would suggest that in Albisola “Lam found a climate and landscape similar to that of Cuba … a locale” which “corresponded with his vision of nature and of Cuban life and culture” (1986, p. 7). Lam himself once cast his presence in Albisola as a matter of historical imperative. Noting the proximity to Genoa, the birthplace of Christopher Columbus, he noted: “I have made the journey of Christopher Columbus in reverse: from the Antilles to Liguria.”20 Although Lam maintained an active relationship with Cuba, particularly after 1963, he would never again establish a permanent residence in his native land.
What this essay has attempted to show is that the artistic, cultural, and political movements in the Caribbean in the 1940s and 1950s were given added impetus by the surrealists’ promotion of non‐Western culture on their own terms. This art movement has distinguished itself through the key role it played in encouraging the burgeoning self‐redefinition of black peoples in the Caribbean. The result was a sense of autonomy that was integral to the independence movements. In turn, as Rosemont notes, the Caribbean was to have a great influence on Breton. He writes:
Breton's West Indian adventure was a decisive event in his life and in the evolution of the surrealist movement. Years later Césaire remarked that for him, as a West Indian, surrealism had been not so much a revelation as a confirmation. We can say that the West Indies provided Breton … with a confirmation, one of such depth and scope that it helped establish the surrealist project on a more truly universal foundation than had previously been possible.
(1978, p. 95)
Notes
1 1 This discussion draws on material previously published in Sims L.S. (2002). Wifredo Lam and the International Avant‐Garde, 1923–1982. Austin: University of Texas Press, and my essay “Surrealism in the Caribbean: The Art and Politics of Liberation at the Crossroads of the World,” published in Caribbean: Art at the Crossroads of the World, exh. cat. (New York: El Museo del Barrio, in association with Yale University Press, 2012), 223–239.
2 2 See “Chronology,” in Balderrama, M. (ed.) (1992) Wifredo Lam and His Contemporaries (exh. cat.), 94. New York: The Studio Museum in Harlem.
3 3 See René Crevel, “Colonies,” Le surréalisme au service de la révolution 1 (July 1930): 9–12; “Bobards and fariboles,” also by Crevel, in number 2 (October 1930): 78 of the same periodical, and in number 5 (May 1933) an article by the Martiniquan writer Jules M. Monnerot, “A partir de quelques traits particuliers à la mentalité civilisée,” 35–37.
4 4 It should be noted, though, that Lam himself encouraged a less literal comprehension of his work. He pointed out that the title of The Jungle “has nothing to do with the real countryside of Cuba, where there is no jungle but woods, hills and open country, and the background of the picture is a sugar cane plantation.” For him this painting “was intended to communicate a psychic state” rather than a geographical phenomenon.
5 5 Carpentier quoted in Herzberg, “Wifredo Lam,” p. 68 in Balderamma (1992).
6 6 Interview with Bélance, R. (1978). In: André Breton: What is Surrealism? Selected Writings. (ed. F. Rosemont), 255. New York: Monad Press for the Anchor Foundation, Inc..
7 7 Ibid., 256.
8 8 See Rosemont (1978), pp. 258–260; and André Breton: La beauté convulsive (1991), pp. 365 and 394.
9 9 See Rosemont (1978), pp. 258–260; André Breton: La beauté convulsive (1991), pp. 365 and 394; and Kelley (2009), p. 67.
10 10 Rosemont (1978), pp. 258–260 and Kelley (2009), p. 67.
11 11 Mark Rothko quoted in Sandler (1970), p. 67.
12 12 Rosemont (1978), pp. 258–260 and Kelley (2009), p. 67.
13 13 Ibid.
14 14 Monosiet, P. (1978). A chronology of Haitian Art. In: Haitian Art (exh. cat., ed. U. Stebich), 12. New York: The Brooklyn Museum in association with Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers.
15 15 Ibid., pp. 7 and 11.
16 16 Ibid., p. 7.
17 17 Ibid., p. 12.
18 18 Ibid., p. 48.
19 19 Sims, L.S., (1992). Rethinking the destiny of line in painting: The later work of Wifredo Lam. In: Wifredo Lam: A Retrospective of Works on Paper (exh. cat., ed. C. Merewether), 48. New York: Americas Society.
20 20 Lam quoted in Vicenti (1972).
References
1 A way to kill space (1946). Newsweek (12 August): 106–107.
2 Ades, D. (1989). Art in Latin America: The Modern Era, 1820–1980 (exh. cat.). London: South Bank Centre.
3 André Breton: La Beauté Convulsive (1991). (exh. cat.). Paris: Musée National d'Art Moderne.
4 Aguirre, M. (1946). Antillas en Wifredo Lam. Hoy (14 April) Archives SDO Wifredo Lam, Paris.
5 Aranda‐Alvarado, Rocío (2001). New world primitivism in Harlem and Havana: Constructing modern identities in the Americas, 1924–1945. Doctoral dissertation. City University of New York. Courtesy of the author.
6 Balderrama, M. (ed.) (1992). Wifredo Lam and His Contemporaries (exh. cat.). New York: The Studio Museum in Harlem.
7 Black Surrealism. (2018). In: The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia. http://www.artandpopularculture.com/Black_Surrealism (accessed 15 August 2018).
8 Blanc,
