Wilfredo Lam

By combining the tenants of Surrealism and Cubism. Lam created a line that has a sinuous life of its own. A female nude's head turns into nipples while flowers cascade down her linear tresses. His eerie composite figures sport horns, spikes and impossible anatomy, as in a female whose two breasts grow out of her neck. Like the other Surrealists, Lam was Deeply interested in primitive mythology and imagery, and he outlined quirky aboriginal symbols of a snake, birds and humans on several figures. These hybrid figures were also born out on the nightmarish paintings of Bosch and Goya, both of whom the artist intensely admired and studied at the Prado Museum in Madrid.

One of Lam's best drawings is a study in elegant simplicity in which two heads, one male and one female, are melded into one linear body. The purity and lyricism of this line adds to the spirituality of these odd creatures. As a complex artist whose life spanned the critical art movements of this century, Lam was a master at mixing the primitive with the urbane, as is demonstrated by these incisive drawings. By encapsulating both terror and beauty in his gifures, Lam endowed these drawings with powerful psychological tension. This lucid exhibition offers a glimpse of a creative mind exploring new themes and images as revealed by the self-aware workings of his subconscious.