3D tactile object - Le Marchand d’Oiseaux
Description and Manual
Wilfredo Lam Le Marchand d’oiseaux - The Merchand of Birds 1962 Oil on canvas 130 by 98 cm 3D tactile object
Please note: this 3D tactile object is fragile, so please handle with care.
Within the opening of the round object, you find The Bird merchant by Wilfredo Lam. It is a 3D tactile object of an oil painting painted by Lam in 1962. It is a spatial translation of a flat work.
You can touch and feel the object gingerly. Turn off the sound if needed. We can go over it again afterwards.
A black pole is situated in the middle. On top of the pole, there is a small triangle, with its tip pointed downwards. Depicting a face with two eyes and two small horns underneath a larger triangle, also pointing downwards and adorned with two eyes and two horns.
The face is stylized; the chin forming a sharp triangle.
We assume this to be the face of the bird merchant.
On the right-hand side of the head, there are two elements that resemble two arms. One hand consists of a kind of brush and the other hand looks like a grappling instrument. At about two thirds up the pole, a duck-like bird rests on two folded hands.
You could consider the style to be cubist after the work’s visual language (think of the triangular faces).
The fact that the bird merchant is not modelled after reality but originates from the fantasy and dreamworld of the artist, points in the direction of surrealism as well.
As for the colours, it is a monochrome painting.
The background is dark brown, the pole is black, and the seller and the bird are painted in different shades of beige.
Who was the artist Wilfredo Lam and why do we find his work in this room? He is in good company in this room, including Picasso no less, of whom a female portrait is displayed.
Wilfredo Lam was born in Cuba and worked alternately in Madrid, Paris and New York. He met Picasso, and the intellectual milieu that this artist surrounded himself with, in the 1930s. Lam was influenced by Cubism and Surrealism and remained faithful to this style throughout his life.
It's funny how the bird seller has come to resemble his merchandise: his head is almost a bird's beak. The way he holds the duck in both hands speaks of the careful way he handles his merchandise.
Text by Fleur Brom, museum teacher at the Van Abbemuseum.