Adam and Eve 1969

Wifredo Lam made this painting called "Adam and Eve", and it is full of angular shapes in greens, creams, and blues floating across a deep brown background. I can almost imagine him in his studio, surrounded by the humid air of Cuba, coaxing these forms into existence. Look at the way he's laid down those long, bony limbs and mask-like faces. What were those figures whispering to him as he brushed the paint across the canvas? Maybe he was thinking about Picasso, about the way Cubism breaks down figures and rebuilds them in unexpected ways. Or maybe he was thinking about his Afro-Cuban heritage, conjuring spirits and deities through his brushstrokes. I feel that the texture is smooth; that the paint is applied thinly, letting the forms speak for themselves. Those sharp, angular lines and the eerie eyes staring out at us—they're not just shapes, they're a language. It reminds me that painting is an ongoing conversation between artists, across time and space. It’s not about answers, but about keeping the questions alive, like Lam does here.