A skilled painter and draughtsman, Wifredo Lam first left his native Cuba for Madrid and Paris in 1923. Back in Havana in 1941, he found himself drawn to the vernacular Afro-Cuban aesthetics, which exercised enormous influence on his art. Later in his life, he spent extended periods in Albissola Marina, developing a body of works in ceramic. Esoteric elements are central to Wifredo Lam’s iconography. Though he never practised Afro- Cuban Santeria himself, he did attend its rituals and ceremonies. He was a close observer of the domestic altars in Cuban homes. It was through his sister, Eloísa, that Lam first met Santeria. From 1941 to 1952 – years the artist spent in Cuba – Lam painted over one hundred works with images tied to that spiritual practise. The femme cheval (horse-headed woman), a recurring theme in Lam’s work from this period, represents both a woman possessed by an orisha, a supernatural entity from West African religion, and an anticolonialist spiritual force. In works such as Untitled (Mujer Caballo), the features of the figures are a cross between the human and the animal. The female figure in this work has a horse’s head and crest. Produced between 1942 and 1946, this is one of the most important works Lam painted around the theme of the Horse Woman.
—Sonia Becce
