​In Les Noces (The Wedding), Wilfredo Lam plays with form. The painting is filled with figures which merge into human form, animals and plants. The faces, hands and legs are seen to be holding on or uniting with forms such as swords, candelabras, a cresent moon, a horse shoe, spears and wheels. Some of these objects come out from the painting, creating a disturbing, violent and ecstatic scene.
When Les Noces was aquired by the Nationalgalerie in Berlin in 1966, it was classified as being a part of the Surrealism collection. This classification was related to Wilfredo’s friendship with Picasso and the surrealists in Paris. But, Les Noces was made in 1947, when Wilfredo had already been back in Cuba for six years. At that time, he saw the cultural exploitation and the oppression of African and Chinese Cubans.
Based on his experiences and living with artists in colonising countries, he used surrealism as a means to dismantle colonial thinking to reject and oppose the injustices he witnessed.
 

About the Artist

Wifredo Lam explores, through his canvases, his political identity and that of people he meets. His artistic journey reflects that of his life. After graduating from arts school in Havana, Cuba, he gained a scholarship to study in Madrid, after which he went to Paris. Throughout his journeys, he met with people from Africa, Oceania and South America and learned about their traditions. As a migrant, whose father is Chinese and mother Afro-Cuban, he is able to empathise with them. These encounters provide stimulus for his artistic practice.