The Museum of Modern Art in New York features Wifredo Lam: When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream, the first major retrospective of the Cuban artist in the United States. The exhibition includes more than 130 works, including paintings, drawings, prints, ceramics, illustrated books, and archival material. It covers Lam’s career from the 1920s through the 1970s. This show is spectacular!

Wifredo Lam was born in Cuba in 1902. His father was Chinese and his mother was Afro-Cuban. Lam lived and worked in Europe for many years, where he encountered Surrealism, Cubism, and other avant-garde movements. He combined these influences with Afro-Caribbean culture, religious traditions, and his own personal experiences to create a unique style.

“Africa has not only been dispossessed of many of its people, but also of its historical consciousness … I have tried to relocate Black cultural objects in terms of their own landscape and in relation to their own world.” Lam said.

The exhibition includes some of Lam’s most important works. The Jungle (1942–43) shows human, animal, and plant forms combined on a large canvas. It reflects on Cuba’s history and culture. Other works, such as La Guerra Civil (1937), reveal Lam’s engagement with political events in Europe. Grande Composition (1949) and Les Invités (1966) show his continued experimentation with scale, figures, and symbolism.

The exhibition also presents Lam’s later works in abstraction, ceramics, and printmaking. These works demonstrate his ongoing exploration of form and his interest in Afro-Caribbean traditions. Curated by Christophe Cherix and Beverly Adams, the exhibition presents Lam as a central figure in modern art.

When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream is on view until April 11, 2026, in MoMA’s Robert B. Menschel Galleries. It provides an opportunity to see a wide range of Lam’s work and to understand his contribution to modern art.