Wifredo Lam Is Lin Fei Long

Abstract: This essay argues for the significant presence of Chinese visual culture in Wifredo Lam's oeuvre, emphasizing his fusion of the multiethnic aspects of his heritage—Cuban, African, European, and Chinese—to create a unique visual language that displaces the Eurocentrism of avant-garde art practice and its histories. Specific attention is given to his works The Jungle, Fata Morgana, Les Notes , and Table dans le Jardin in relation to the influence of Chinese calligraphy, poetry, spatial perspective, and the presence of Confucian literati culture on his practice. Taken together, Lam's unique links to his Chinese heritage throughout the span of his career invites a closer look at the influences in his practice alongside the Black Atlantic, thus expanding the definition of diaspora as well as scholarship concerning his impact on modernist painting as a tool for social change. In doing so, this essay hopes to reframe Lam's contribution to Black studies, locating its significance beyond the confines of the Black Atlantic and within a broader, transcultural context.