MoMA’s Bold Wifredo Lam Retrospective Reveals a Radical Visionary

A major retrospective of Wifredo Lam’s work has opened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Titled Wifredo Lam: When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream, the exhibition features over 130 artworks spanning his career. Among them is La Guerra Civil, displayed in the U.S. for the first time.

Lam was born in Cuba but left for Spain in 1923 at the age of 21. Trained as a portrait painter, his early work took a darker turn after personal tragedy struck. In 1931, his first wife and young son died from tuberculosis, inspiring the haunting Madre y niño.

By 1937, Lam had been radicalised by the Spanish Civil War and the rise of fascism. He fought in Madrid and created La Guerra Civil, his first openly political piece. The painting’s chaotic, anguished figures echo Goya’s The Third of May 1808 and Picasso’s Guernica, both responses to the same conflict. Political turmoil in Cuba later forced Lam into exile. He left his homeland in 1952, settling in Paris and Italy until his death in 1982. His travels shaped his art, blending Caribbean, African, and European influences. The exhibition also includes La jungla, a work MoMA acquired in 1945. Lam’s legacy endures among today’s artists. His focus on decolonisation and diasporic identity challenged modernism’s Eurocentric roots. Many contemporary creators, like Lam, now live and work across borders, drawing inspiration from his global perspective.

The MoMA exhibition runs until early next year. Visitors will see Lam’s evolution from a classically trained painter to a radical voice in modern art. His works remain a powerful reminder of how personal and political struggles shape creativity.