| Lam studied at the School of Fine Art in Havana. He moved to Madrid in 1923 and worked there at painting. In 1932 his young wife and their child died and this tragedy affected him for the rest of his life, lending a gloomy aspect to his work. He moved to Paris in 1938, where Picasso took him under his wing and encouraged his interest in African art and primitive masks. During that year, he also travelled to Mexico, where he stayed with Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Lams own multicultural heritage (as the son of a Chinese father and a mother of mixed African, Indian, and European descent) and his involvement with Santería, a religion rooted in African culture, would soon become integral to his work. By the late 1930s, Lam was associated with the Surrealists |
