Wilfredo Lam (15)


painting

Source:WTL photo© Wilfredo Lam exhibition in 2016 at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid.
Image: "Les Abalochas dansent pour Dhambala, dieu de l'unité [The Abalochas Danse for Dhambala, God of Unity]" (1970). Oil on canvas. In private collection, courtesy of the McClain Gallery [to the Reina Sofía Museum].

Comment: Here is the blurb in the Sotheby's press release in the auction brochure offering this painting for sale:

"The Most Important Painting By The Cuban Artist Ever To Appear At Auction
Sotheby’s is delighted to announce that the highlight of the 16 and 17 November sales of Latin American Art will be Wifredo Lam’s 1970 masterpiece Les Abalochas Dansent Pour Dhambala, dieu de l'unité (est. $1.75/2.25 million). The painting was one of Lam's favorite works and graced the salon of his Italian home in Albissola. It leads a group of Masterworks from a Private Collection, Aspen; select paintings from which fetched $4.3 million and were 100% sold at the Latin American Art auction in May [...] 2 Masterworks from a Private Collection, Aspen[,] Les Abalochas Dansent Pour Dhambala, dieu de l'unité comes to the market just months after Sotheby’s set a new record for Lam at auction when Sur les traces (Transformation) sold for $1.4 million om May2010. This monumental painting depicting interwoven figures draws on themes encompassing the full breadth of Lam’s creative history from the early Paris paintings through the Femme Cheval series of the 1950s cumulating in the monumental masterpieces of the 1970s. Les Abalochas treads a fine line between figuration and abstraction, referencing a range of human emotions including pain, joy, movement and loss. Les Abalochas Dansent Pour Dhambala, dieu de l'unité interprets a religious scene depicting Dhambala, the Creole name in [a] Haiti for a rainbow serpent, intermingling with Ayida, another serpent in a sign of union and ecstasy with other figures creating a sense of constant movement.

For a view of this painting as displayed at the Reina Sofía Museum: see => Lam 15a.
Humanities Question: Comment on the Sotheby's advertisement for the sale of this painting.