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Lot Essay
Lam's large, imposing painting entitled Damballah is redolent of the mysteries of the tropical forest. From its lush green background emerge figures defined by spiky, crescent shaped forms, highlighted by a glowing white flame at the right. Yellows, pinks and blues are employed to lend an almost jewel-like glow to this evocative image. Painted in 1947 possibly in Havana, Damballah directly reflects Lam's experiences in Haiti, a country that he visited for the first time in the mid-1940s.
Lam's trip to Haiti which lasted from December of 1945 to April of 1946 was initiated by the painter's friend from his Paris days, Pierre Mabille, who had recently been appointed cultural attaché to the French embassy in Port-au-Prince. In January of 1945 an exhibition had been held at the Centre d'Art Galerie in the Haitian capital entitled Les Peintres Modernes Cubains, an event that had served to awaken interest in the art of the neighboring island. Mabille invited Lam, along with André Breton to visit Haiti. Lam, accompanied by his wife Helena Holzer, was obviously impressed by what he saw. For him, a trip to Haiti served to re-enforce his knowledge and sympathetic understanding of the African roots of much of Caribbean culture.
Since Lam's return to his native Cuba in 1941 after a long sojourn in Spain and France, his art continuously evoked the strong links that he felt with the culture of the Santería religion, the syncretistic form of worship that had developed in Cuba incorporating African (specifically Yoruban) beliefs with Cristian practices. The artist's most famous work The Jungle (New York, Museum of Modern Art) of 1943 represents a high point of this period and stands as a deeply personal statement of his inventive use of Afro-Cuban inspiration, his transformation of formal sources of Afro-Antillian art and his commitment to the religious tenets of Santería. Damballah goes further in the direction of incorporating Afro-Antillean subject matter into an artistic vocabulary equally derived from Caribbean, African and Cubist forms.
The writings of both Pierre Mabille and Breton describe the impact of Lam's visit to Haiti on his art. Breton published a text entitled La Nuit à Haiti which accompanied the catalogue of Lam's solo exhibition organized in January, 1946 in Port-au-Prince by the Centre d'Art Galerie. In an essay entitled Tropiques published in a special edition of the magazine XXe Siècle (Paris, 1979) Mabille describes the Vodun ceremonies which he attended with Lam, Holzer and Breton. Like Santería, Vodun incorporates African and Christian principles. In another essay published in the Magazine of Art (New York, 1949), Mabille states that Lam attended Voodoo (Vodun) ceremonies to celebrate the 'god of unity', Damballah, Isuline, the 'goddess of the sea', and Desaline, 'the illiterate genius'. He states in this article, "I remember the enthusiasm with which he painted his first canvases clearly expressing the emotions of black magic. I had just arrived in Haiti, land of Voodoo, and I immediately recognized in Lam's paintings the divinities honored during those primitive rituals. In referring to the liturgies of Vodun, Lam himself stated "The negro ceremonies of Cuba could not compare with these, which were prodigious. One of them began at dusk and ended at nearly five-o- clock in the morning. It included sacrifices of animals and the calling forth of the dead. Unforgettable! Women dressed in white danced in a state of trance. Enormous drums almost deafened us. What wild, savage beauty!" Later, critic Charles Merewether underscored the violence of those paintings done by Lam as a result of his Haitian experiences, referring to their "vengeful primitivism."
Lam's encounters with the complexities of Haitian religious practices obviously left a lasting impact on his imagination. While the artist left Haiti in the late winter of 1946 he continued to create powerful images imbued with the spirit of the traditions that had survived there from the African nations of Dahomey and Guinea. In Damballah, Lam refers specifically to the god of unity and fertility. Worship of Damballah originated with the Fan people of Dahomey. In his New World (specifically Haitian) manifestation, this male deity is often equated with the Christian Saint Patrick and his iconography may include representations of snakes—a symbol of fertility. While Lam does not follow these visual traditions specifically in this painting, he nonetheless includes a phallic suggestion in the form at the right of the canvas. The emergence of the angular shapes from the dense green foliage of the tropical jungle and vaguely sinister configuration of the figures painted here are powerful evocations of Lam's first experiences with Vodun practices in Haiti. Through paintings such as Damballah he gives new life to the forceful shock that the sacred practices of Haitian religion first produced on his imagination.
Edward J Sullivan, Helen Gould Shepard Professor in the History of Art, New York University.
Lam's trip to Haiti which lasted from December of 1945 to April of 1946 was initiated by the painter's friend from his Paris days, Pierre Mabille, who had recently been appointed cultural attaché to the French embassy in Port-au-Prince. In January of 1945 an exhibition had been held at the Centre d'Art Galerie in the Haitian capital entitled Les Peintres Modernes Cubains, an event that had served to awaken interest in the art of the neighboring island. Mabille invited Lam, along with André Breton to visit Haiti. Lam, accompanied by his wife Helena Holzer, was obviously impressed by what he saw. For him, a trip to Haiti served to re-enforce his knowledge and sympathetic understanding of the African roots of much of Caribbean culture.
Since Lam's return to his native Cuba in 1941 after a long sojourn in Spain and France, his art continuously evoked the strong links that he felt with the culture of the Santería religion, the syncretistic form of worship that had developed in Cuba incorporating African (specifically Yoruban) beliefs with Cristian practices. The artist's most famous work The Jungle (New York, Museum of Modern Art) of 1943 represents a high point of this period and stands as a deeply personal statement of his inventive use of Afro-Cuban inspiration, his transformation of formal sources of Afro-Antillian art and his commitment to the religious tenets of Santería. Damballah goes further in the direction of incorporating Afro-Antillean subject matter into an artistic vocabulary equally derived from Caribbean, African and Cubist forms.
The writings of both Pierre Mabille and Breton describe the impact of Lam's visit to Haiti on his art. Breton published a text entitled La Nuit à Haiti which accompanied the catalogue of Lam's solo exhibition organized in January, 1946 in Port-au-Prince by the Centre d'Art Galerie. In an essay entitled Tropiques published in a special edition of the magazine XXe Siècle (Paris, 1979) Mabille describes the Vodun ceremonies which he attended with Lam, Holzer and Breton. Like Santería, Vodun incorporates African and Christian principles. In another essay published in the Magazine of Art (New York, 1949), Mabille states that Lam attended Voodoo (Vodun) ceremonies to celebrate the 'god of unity', Damballah, Isuline, the 'goddess of the sea', and Desaline, 'the illiterate genius'. He states in this article, "I remember the enthusiasm with which he painted his first canvases clearly expressing the emotions of black magic. I had just arrived in Haiti, land of Voodoo, and I immediately recognized in Lam's paintings the divinities honored during those primitive rituals. In referring to the liturgies of Vodun, Lam himself stated "The negro ceremonies of Cuba could not compare with these, which were prodigious. One of them began at dusk and ended at nearly five-o- clock in the morning. It included sacrifices of animals and the calling forth of the dead. Unforgettable! Women dressed in white danced in a state of trance. Enormous drums almost deafened us. What wild, savage beauty!" Later, critic Charles Merewether underscored the violence of those paintings done by Lam as a result of his Haitian experiences, referring to their "vengeful primitivism."
Lam's encounters with the complexities of Haitian religious practices obviously left a lasting impact on his imagination. While the artist left Haiti in the late winter of 1946 he continued to create powerful images imbued with the spirit of the traditions that had survived there from the African nations of Dahomey and Guinea. In Damballah, Lam refers specifically to the god of unity and fertility. Worship of Damballah originated with the Fan people of Dahomey. In his New World (specifically Haitian) manifestation, this male deity is often equated with the Christian Saint Patrick and his iconography may include representations of snakes—a symbol of fertility. While Lam does not follow these visual traditions specifically in this painting, he nonetheless includes a phallic suggestion in the form at the right of the canvas. The emergence of the angular shapes from the dense green foliage of the tropical jungle and vaguely sinister configuration of the figures painted here are powerful evocations of Lam's first experiences with Vodun practices in Haiti. Through paintings such as Damballah he gives new life to the forceful shock that the sacred practices of Haitian religion first produced on his imagination.
Edward J Sullivan, Helen Gould Shepard Professor in the History of Art, New York University.