Artista wifredo lam biography

Wifredo Lam was born in Sagua la Grande, Cuba, on December 8, 1902. He was the eighth child born to Lam-Yam―born in Canton around 1820, an immigrant to the Americas in 1860―and to Ana Serafina Catilla―born in 1862 in Cuba of mixed African and Spanish ancestry.

The luxuriant nature of Sagua la Grande had a strong impact on Lam from early childhood.

Artista wifredo lam biography

One night in 1907, he was startled by the strange shadows cast on the wall of his bedroom of a bat in flight. He often recounted the incident as his first magnificent awakening to another dimension to existence.

In 1916, Lam and part of his family settled in Havana.

He was enrolled in the Escuela Profesional de Pintura y Escultura, Academia de San Alejandro, where he remained a student until 1923. This period, with exhibitions at the Salón de Bellas artes, was determinant in his choice to become a painter.

In 1923, the municipality of Sagua la Grande awarded him a grant to study in Europe and by the autumn of that year, at the age