Oiseau de Fer & Oiseau de Feu

Oiseau du fer & Oiseau de feu is a work realized by Wifredo Lam in 1970s.  

Pair of polished metal sculptures and chromed bronze.

h cm 26.5 x 14.  1.8 kg for each. 

Both signed and numbered 127/500. 

Provenance: Private collection, Milan. 

Maybe one of the most celebrated sculptures by Lam. Both in excellent condition.

Wifredo Lam (Sagua la Grande, December 8, 1902 - Paris, September 11, 1982) was a Cuban artist.

Wifredo Lam was born in Sagua la Grande, a municipality located in the Cuban province of Villa Clara, the eighth child of a wealthy 84-year-old Chinese merchant and a mother of African-European descent. In the early autumn of 1923 he sailed for Spain where

he lived for fourteen years. In 1938 Lam met Pablo Picasso and got to know the painter's friends (Joan Miró, Fernand Léger, Henri Matisse, Paul Éluard, Georges Braque). In 1941 he left Europe for Cuba with André Breton, who wanted to go to New York.

But while he thought he would find his native island, he was interned for forty days on the small island of Martinique. In spite of everything he made the acquaintance of Aimé Césaire of which he became friend. After staying on the island for ten years, at the

age of fifty, he moved permanently to Paris (often staying in Italy, in Albisola, where he had a villa studio and where he worked on ceramic works). He died in Paris. Fidel Castro, in agreement with his wife Lou, fulfilled Wifredo Lam's wish to be buried in Cuba,

also creating the Wifredo Lam Museum in Havana.