Dreaming Against Empire: Reclaiming Wifredo Lam’s Radical Modernism - ART AFRICA Magazine
In conversation with Beverly Adams, co-curator of ‘Wifredo Lam: When I Don't Sleep, I Dream’ at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. 23 June 2026 Spanning six decades of artistic production, ‘Wifredo Lam: When I Don't Sleep, I Dream’ revisits the work of one of modernism's most influential and elusive figures. Bringing together more
In conversation with Beverly Adams, co-curator of ‘Wifredo Lam: When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream’at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. 23 June 2026Spanning six decades of artistic production, ‘Wifredo Lam: When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream’revisits the work of one of modernism’s most influential and elusive figures. Bringing together more than 130 works, the exhibition traces how Lam forged a visual language shaped by movement, exile, poetry, and Afro-Caribbean thought. Co-curator Beverly Adams speaks about rethinking Lam’s place within modern art, the politics of exhibiting his work today, and why his vision remains urgently relevant. Installation view ofWifredo Lam: When I Don’t Sleep, I Dreamon view at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, from November 10, 2025, through April 11, 2026. Photo by Jonathan DoradoThe exhibition presents Lam as a transnational artist shaped by movement and displacement. How did you tell this story in a way that goes beyond biography and shows how it shaped his artistic language?We wanted to start by looking closely at the artworks themselves and giving viewers the opportunity to encounter Lam’s practice in the fullest sense. While his biography undoubtedly informs many layers of his work, we felt it was important to emphasise his practice. An example of his practice being shaped by displacement is his use of paper. Cheap and lightweight, paper became his primary medium throughout his life, initially out of necessity and practicality. Wifredo Lam withLa jungla (The Jungle)(1942–43), left,La mañana verde (The Green Morning)(1943), right, andLa silla (The Chair)(1943), on the floor, in his Havana studio, 1943. Archives SDO Wifredo Lam, ParisLam described his painting as an “act of decolonization. ” How did you bring this idea into the curatorial approach, especially within a museum like MoMA?The first step was to look closely at MoMA’s own history of collecting Lam, as well as its broader institutional relationship to his work. MoMA was the first museum to acquire a work by Lam in 1939. While there were subsequent acquisitions, includingLa jungla(1942-43) in 1945, Lam never had a solo exhibition at the museum, even though his work was widely shown in the collection galleries and infamously by the coat check at the entrance of the Museum. Revisiting the museum’s own framing of Lam, we wanted to engage more openly about how an artist’s work can both be shaped by, and in turn reshape, the institution that holds it. Installation view ofWifredo Lam: When I Don’t Sleep, I Dreamon view at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, from November 10, 2025, through April 11, 2026. Photo by Jonathan DoradoThe exhibition spans over six decades and many different media. What key connections or shifts stood out to you across Lam’s practice?A central thread running through Lam’s practice across decades and media is his deep engagement with poetry. He repeatedly acknowledged this influence in both his writings and interviews, and it is evident in his close relationships and collaborations with writers from diverse geographies and generations, including lifelong friend Aimé Césaire, as well as Édouard Glissant, René Char, Gherasim Luca, Alejo Carpentier, and Federico García Lorca, among many others. Some of these relationships resulted in collaborative book projects or print portfolios. His engagement with literature across multiple languages not only shaped his networks but also surfaced in his work, with titles given by poets or drawn from specific literary texts. Installation view ofWifredo Lam: When I Don’t Sleep, I Dreamon view at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, from November 10, 2025, through April 11, 2026. Photo by Jonathan DoradoLam’s return to Cuba in 1941 is seen as a turning point. How did you approach this moment not just as a return home, but as a deeper engagement with Afro-Caribbean histories and spirituality?Lam’s return to Cuba in 1941 was one of several formative moments that shaped and challenged his life and practice. His early move to Spain at twenty-one, fighting in the Spanish Civil War, World War II, and his time in Marseille were all equally significant in the development of his work. Lam had already been exposed to Afro-Caribbean histories and spiritualities in his youth. His return marked not a discovery but an expansion of these earlier experiences, as well as the formation of new connections, including his friendship with Lydia Cabrera. Rather than a culmination of the first half of his life, this was a watershed moment for what followed. Installation view ofWifredo Lam: When I Don’t Sleep, I Dreamon view at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, from November 10, 2025, through April 11, 2026. Photo by Jonathan DoradoWorks likeLa junglabring together landscape, the body, and histories of violence. How did you balance highlighting these political themes without limiting how the work can be interpreted?Lam’s work in general is layered and open-ended. WithLa jungla(1942-43), we wanted to foreground the multiple histories of the Caribbean landscape, while still preserving the painting’s openness to interpretation. In a late interview, Lam described the painting in these terms: “Many people ask me what each of the elements in the painting means. In the bodies, for example, I drew inspiration from sugarcane, the crop that drives our entire economy. Every time one looks at this painting, it can be interpreted in a different way. I think it is quite evocative of the tropics; it is like a symphony. I cannot explain it note by note, because for to sensitive ears—just as to sensitive eyes—there lies a hidden poetry within the work. ”Wifredo Lam. La jungla (The Jungle), 1942-43. Oil and charcoal on paper mounted on canvas. The Museum of Modern Art, New York © Succession Wifredo Lam, ADAGP, Paris / ARS, New York 2025The exhibition includes works not shown in decades, such asGrande Composition. How does showing these again change our understanding of Lam’s use of scale and abstraction?Lam was extremely prolific, producing a vast body of work throughout his lifetime. He worked obsessively, making work continuously regardless of where he was. His repeated exiles also meant that he was frequently forced to leave works behind, often without knowing where they would ultimately end up. To this day, some works remain unlocated. In the case ofGrande Composition, the painting was held in private collections for decades. What is particularly striking is that, despite being Lam’s largest work on paper, it remained largely unknown to the general public. It was done in the late 1940s when his work turned more and more toward abstraction. Its scale reflects his interest in murals. Lam created three murals during the 1950s, the first of which closely resemblesGrande Composition. It also highlights his renewed interest in paper, returning to this support as he had in earlier statement paintings such asThe Spanish Civil War(1937) andLa jungla(1942-43). Wifredo Lam. Les Invités (The Guests), 1966. Oil and charcoal on canvas, Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros © Succession Wifredo Lam, ADAGP, Paris / ARS, New York 2025Lam worked closely with poets and writers like Aimé Césaire. How did you present these collaborations in the exhibition, especially across visual and literary forms?In the vitrines, we present a range of his book projects, alongside print portfolios displayed on the walls. Lam often invited friends and collaborators such as André Breton, Aimé Césaire, and Lydia Cabrera to contribute titles, reflecting his close ties to poets and writers as well as his collaborative spirit. These relationships are further explored in the section texts, extended labels, audio guide, and exhibition catalogue. Wifredo Lam. Harpe astrale (Astral Harp), 1944. Oil on canvas, Private collection. © Succession Wifredo Lam, ADAGP, Paris / ARS, New York 2025The exhibition highlights themes like exile, racism, and displacement. What does it mean to experience Lam’s work today, in a world where these issues are still present?What makes Lam’s practice so compelling now is precisely that tension. His work doesn’t sit in the past as something closed. These works made decades ago continue to reflect realities still lived today. It pushes us to think critically about how histories of colonialism, migration, and racialised violence continue to structure the present, but also how Lam forged a distinct path within modernism and helped shift the canon in ways we are perhaps only now beginning to fully grasp. This exhibition was on view at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, from 10 November 2025 to 11 April 2026.