The Fiance 1944

Wifredo Lam made this painting called 'The Fiance' and, looking at it, I get a sense of figures emerging from a shadowy place, their forms built up from layered strokes and semi-transparent glazes. It's like he’s digging into the canvas, searching for the essence of these characters through the act of painting itself. The surfaces is scrubby, and the brushwork feels almost frantic in places, like around the edges, but then controlled in others, like the geometric shapes that make up their faces. I keep coming back to the drips running down from the lower part of the woman's skirt. They could be tears, or they could be the result of Lam adding a thinner to the paint and letting it do its thing, which adds to the paintings air of mystery. This reminds me of some of Picasso’s cubist portraits, where the figure is fragmented and reassembled, pushing the boundaries of representation. For Lam, though, it’s not just about form; it’s about evoking a feeling, a mood, leaving space for interpretation.