Anne Egger – Wifredo Lam or the Exultations of the Unpredictable

the precipitation of colors and their
transfiguration in the ardent cave. For
the metamorphoses the flames inflict
on the drawing, the enamel, for its
dream matter”.
Lam’s ceramic work, in which “evils,
enamels, animals” interplay and
ignite, consists of original, curious
objects, objects diverted from their
utility: plates as masks or spiked
reliefs, sculpted cups which cannot
hold anything. In an iconoclastic
gesture, entirely given over to the
pleasure of transgression, Lam incises
or adds more clay. He chisels, digs,
notches or rolls back whole sheaths
of clay to give a fish its flight. And
hence the artist attained a threedimensionality
that is both ancestral
and tribal in its method of bringing
life to forms. A truly “Lamian”
mythology invades these plates and
tondi – fantastic figures, emerging
from his mind’s fertile world, “an
outside-memory bestiary”: ancestor
made divine, zoomorphic ghost,
totemic sign, traced lines of voodoo
initiations, and more: mask, fish, bird,
horse-woman. They have all come
out of the forest of Lam’s Jungle to
anchor themselves in the clay.
admired by fellow artists and
exhibited the world over. The fruit of
the artist’s dialogue with the earth and
with color, they are peopled by his
dreams. Talking about great painters
becoming ceramicists, Gaston
Bachelard wrote: “They’re the ones
who cook their colors. With fire, they
make light.”
Anne Egger
One of the painter’s greatest
pleasures was to invent new tints
or combinations of colors glazed
by fire, delighting in a form of
experimentation that has no end.
This magician of color knew how to
alternate matt or gloss effects, bright
or muted tones. Unless he chose
to use the aerograph technique, he
superimposed enamels, sprinkled
on oxides or added pieces of glass,
producing multiple and various
combinations. These coatings –
glazes, drops, lumps, cracks, blisters –
which are in fact carefully sought-out
effects, are original creations in and of
themselves.
Wifredo Lam is a protean, multifaceted
artist. His over 400 ceramics,
metamorphosed in the singing kilns
of Albissola, are unique pieces,
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