WIFREDO’S JUNGLE

The story begins with Wifredo Lam’s childhood in a small Cuban village, where he shared a home with seven older siblings, his Chinese Cuban papá, and his African-Taíno-Spanish-Cuban mamá. His papá’s calligraphy work and his godmother’s Santería ceremonies formed the first major influences on the budding artist, whose predilection for sketching and drawing arose at an early age. His family’s relocation to La Habana, where law school awaited, proved antithetical to Wifredo’s desire to commune with art and nature. Engle then promptly charts Lam’s artistic arc, from art school, where a self-portrait led to the realization “that he was finally learning all the skills of an artist,” to his travels abroad in Spain, which galvanized the burgeoning painter to absorb from both the Old Masters and, perhaps more importantly, surrealist and cubist artists like Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso, and Joan Miró. The Spanish Civil War and, thereafter, World War II pushed Wifredo from Europe back to the Caribbean, where he developed his unique style and, eventually, created his masterpiece, La Jungla. Engle omits several key details about Lam’s life from the narrative (though those are fleshed out in the backmatter); instead, this is a rich look at Lam’s artistic trajectory. Set on black and brown paper, Alcántara’s superb gouache and pencil illustrations are stunning, incorporating Lam’s influences with aplomb.