Roberto Matta e Wifredo Lam nelle collezioni della Neue Nationalgalerie di Berlino Ovest diretta da Werner Haftmann (1967-1974)

Abstract

During his curatorship as the first director of the Neue Nationalgalerie in West Berlin Werner Haftmann (1912-1999) purchased a number of artworks by Roberto Matta (1911-2002) and Wifredo Lam (1902-1982) for the museum’s permanent collection. Matta and Lam were both members of the Surrealist movement and the École de Paris. They are emblematic cases of artists with a personal path and a professional career that can be defined as transnational. In the work of these two artists, European artistic movements, such as Surrealism and Cubism, merge with influences from the ancient cultures of Latin America. Matta was influenced by the Mayas and Aztecs and Lam took inspiration from the Santería, an afro-American religion of Yoruba origin that spread among the descendants of West Africans in Cuba.                             Haftmann’s curatorial choices were not merely aimed at enriching the museum’s contemporary art collection, which had been ruined by the Nazi campaigns against ‘degenerate art’ and the destructions of World War II. In fact, he sought to create a ‘world gallery’ that would overcome the geographical and ideological boundaries of a museum surrounded by Cold War’s borders. His ambition was to reconnect West Berlin with the international art centres of the 20th Century. This article investigates the parameters to which Haftmann’s conception of a world gallery responded and the place that the work of Matta and Lam occupy within that conception.