The Museum of Modern Art Presents the Most Comprehensive U.S. Retrospective of Wifredo Lam in Decades
Wifredo Lam: When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream Explores Six Decades of Work by One of the 20th Century’s Most Significant Transnational Artists
The Museum of Modern Art announces Wifredo Lam: When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream, opening November 10, 2025, and on view through April 11, 2026. This landmark exhibition represents the most extensive retrospective devoted to the artist in the United States, offering an unprecedented examination of one of modernism’s most compelling yet underrecognized figures.
Spanning six decades of Lam’s prolific career, the exhibition brings together more than 130 artworks created between the 1920s and 1970s. The retrospective features paintings, large-scale works on paper, collaborative drawings, illustrated books, prints, ceramics, and archival material, with key loans generously provided by the Estate of Wifredo Lam, Paris. This comprehensive presentation reveals how Lam—born in Cuba and spending most of his life working across Spain, France, and Italy—came to embody the quintessential transnational artist of the 20th century.
Wifredo Lam (1902–1982) occupies a unique position in modern art history, having developed a visual language that synthesized Afro-Caribbean spiritual traditions, European avant-garde movements, and a profound critique of colonialism. His work engaged with Surrealism and Cubism while simultaneously challenging the Eurocentrism of these movements, creating paintings that are at once formally innovative and culturally subversive. Lam’s hybrid aesthetic—featuring enigmatic figures that merge human, animal, and plant forms—continues to resonate with contemporary discussions about identity, diaspora, and cultural hybridity.
When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream traces the full arc of Lam’s artistic evolution, from his early academic training to his mature works that secured his position as a crucial figure in international modernism. The exhibition illuminates his significant relationships with major artists and intellectuals, including Pablo Picasso, André Breton, and Aimé Césaire, while emphasizing how Lam maintained his distinctive vision throughout these encounters.
The exhibition is organized by Christophe Cherix, The David Rockefeller Director, and Beverly Adams, The Estrellita Brodsky Curator of Latin American Art; with Damasia Lacroze, Curatorial Associate, Department of Painting and Sculpture, and Eva Caston, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Drawings and Prints.
Leadership support for the exhibition is provided by the Sandra and Tony Tamer Exhibition Fund, the Eyal and Marilyn Ofer Family Foundation, The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, and the Dian Woodner Exhibition Endowment Fund.
Generous funding is provided by The Black Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art.
Additional support is provided by Roberto S. and Elizabeth T. Goizueta.
The Bloomberg Connects digital experience is made possible through the support of Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Major support for the publication is provided by The Museum of Modern Art’s Research and Scholarly Publications endowment established through the generosity of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Edward John Noble Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Perry R. Bass, and the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Challenge Grant Program. Generous funding is provided by the Jo Carole Lauder Publications Endowment Fund of The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art.
Exhibition Dates: November 10, 2025 – April 11, 2026
Location: The Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53 Street, New York, NY 10019
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