Narrator, Marlin Ramos: Friendship and collaboration were crucial to Lam's career.
The Artist’s Son, Eskil Lam: We would have parties, and he would cook dinner for 10 people or 20. There were big discussions—politics or art. He would lecture us about his life and about politics, mostly about sticking together. That was the most important: collaboration and solidarity.
Marlin Ramos: In 1979, Lam showed his old friend Aimé Césaire a series of etchings he made a decade prior. Inspired by what he saw, Césaire wrote poems in response. But it was not until 1982, the year Lam died, that this collaborative work was finally published.
Artist, Rashid Johnson: I love these series of prints in that Lam allows us to recognize what the main characters are, but also, it gives us breath and space to kind of run around in the composition. Césaire also uses a lot of negative space in his poetry. And that's what Lam would've liked about Césaire.
Marlin Ramos: That effect of creating space was intentional. When preparing the plates for this work, Lam treated some areas so that when printed, the bright white paper shone through. Within these areas of empty space, a variety of shapes and figures emerge.
Rashid Johnson: This collaboration is successful in that Lam makes space for Césaire. It becomes an invitation. When you put these poems together with pictures, it's this recognition of the disparate and the disconnected, and how, when they come together, they create such a powerful partnership. That's often times what creativity really is.