Le Repos du modèle 1938

Wifredo Lam made "Le Repos du modèle", in oil on canvas. The colours are, shall we say, muted. But that makes the bold lines that define the figure and the furniture really pop. There’s an energy in the way he’s simplified the forms. I’m drawn to the way Lam handles the surface of this painting. It’s not smooth or blended, but rather textured and raw. You can almost feel the brushstrokes and the way he layered the paint. Look at the model's face, it's broken up into geometric shapes. Each plane is subtly different in tone, it's almost sculptural! I think of Picasso when I look at this painting, but Lam brings his own sensibility. It's like he's saying, "Here's the world, but I'm going to show it to you in my own way." It’s this tension between representation and abstraction that makes the painting so compelling. There's a lot of visual information that you could spend some time unpacking.