Career Timeline of Wifredo Lam: Major Achievements and Milestones

By Popular Timelines Editorial Team · Updated: April 15, 2026

How Wifredo Lam built a successful career. Explore key moments that defined the journey.

Wifredo Lam was a Cuban artist who aimed to represent and revitalize Afro-Cuban culture. He developed a unique style characterized by hybrid figures, influenced by artists like Picasso and Matisse. While primarily a painter, Lam also explored sculpture, ceramics, and printmaking later in his career. His distinctive visual style significantly influenced other artists.

Sections (3)

Full Timeline Early Life & Education Career & Achievements

1923: Studying in Madrid

In 1923, Lam began studying in Madrid under Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor y Zaragoza, curator of the Museo del Prado, and spent his evenings working alongside young, nonconformist painters. He also discovered the work of Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel I at the Prado.

1923: Moved to Madrid to further his art studies

In the autumn of 1923, Lam left for Madrid, Spain to further his art studies.

1936: Siding with the Republicans

In 1936, at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Lam sided with the Republicans and used his talent to fashion Republican posters and propaganda.

1938: Moved to Paris and trip to Mexico

In 1938, Lam moved to Paris and gained the support of Picasso, who introduced him to leading artists. In the same year, he traveled to Mexico and stayed with Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.

1938: Emotional intensity in work

In 1938, Lam produced works with emotional intensity and a stronger African influence, seen in the figures' angular outlines and synthesis of bodies. The subject matter ranged from interacting couples to women in despair.

1939: First exhibition at the Galerie Pierre Loeb and exhibit with Picasso

In 1939, Pierre Loeb gave Lam his first exhibition at the Galerie Pierre Loeb, which received an enthusiastic response from critics. Lam and Picasso also exhibited their work together at the Perls Galleries in New York in the same year.

1943: Began The Jungle

In 1943, Lam began his best-known work, The Jungle. It reflected his mature style, depicting four figures with mask-like heads, half-emerging from dense tropical vegetation.

1950: Worked with René Portocarrero and others on ceramics

In 1950, Lam worked with René Portocarrero and others on ceramic in the village of Santiago de Las Vegas.

1955: Paintings at Havana University

In 1955, Lam exhibited a series of paintings at Havana University to demonstrate his support for the students' protests against Batista's dictatorship.

1960: Established a studio in Albissola Marina

In 1960, Lam established a studio in Albissola Marina on Italy's northwest coast and settled there with his wife Lou Laurin and their three sons.

1962: A Trois Centimetres de la Terre was painted

In 1962, Lam's A Trois Centimetres de la Terre was painted. It was later sold for a record price.

1965: Painted 'El Tercer Mundo'

In 1965, six years after the revolution, Lam showed his loyalty to Castro and his goals of social and economic equality by painting El Tercer Mundo (The Third World) for the presidential palace.