By Bernard Clemens

On April 22nd, Diana Picasso, Eskil Lam, Grace Hightower, Katherine Embiricos and Andrea Catsimatidis joined gallerist Isabelle Bscher to celebrate the opening of “Pablo Picasso and Wifredo Lam” at Galerie Gmurzynska in New York.

The “Pablo Picasso and Wifredo Lam” exhibition presents approximately 50 works spanning 1918 to 1978, including paintings, frescos, works on paper, collage, and ceramics. More than 150 friends, collectors, and art-world luminaries gathered in the expansive Fuller Building gallery space for a private reception and cocktail party to celebrate the opening. Guests included Galerie Gmurzynska co-owners Krystyna Gmurzynska and Mathias Rastorfer, Anna Alimani, Lucas Bscher, Janna Bullock, Bella Meyer, Chris Couri, Lucia Hwong Gordon, Margo Langenberg, Magnus Resch, and R. Couri Hay, among many more.

Midway through the evening, opening remarks were delivered by Eskil Lam, Wifredo’s son, and Rachel Scott, Creative Director of Diotima and Proenza Schouler. Scott spoke about the inspiration behind her latest Lam-inspired collection and invited guests to explore key looks on view at the gallery.

Picasso and Lam first met in Paris in May 1938, an encounter that proved foundational for both, and developed into a deep, lifelong friendship. Picasso introduced Lam to the Paris avant-garde, fostering a style blending Cubism, Surrealism, and Santería symbolism. Between 1940 and 1946, Picasso and Lam regularly exhibited together at the Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, in the Fuller Building, the very same space where Galerie Gmurzynska brings the two artists back into conversation. The last time the duo was exhibited exclusively together was in 1939 at the Perls Gallery in New York, Lam’s first showing in America. Galerie Gmurzynska’s exhibition follows the finissage of the Museum of Modern Art’s highly lauded solo retrospective, “Wifredo Lam: When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream,” bringing some of Lam’s works previously exhibited at the MoMA on display alongside Picasso’s. Among the collection are a rare Étude pour La Jungle (1943) and other masterpieces from Lam’s estate, including part of his indigenous art collection, as well as two of Picasso’s rare frescos from his 1918 honeymoon in Biarritz and works engaging in his lifelong interest in African Art, such as Animaux naturels (Art Primitifs) from 1943. The exhibition will be open through June 2026.

About Galerie Gmurzynska

Established in 1965, Galerie Gmurzynska has been for over three generations a gallery for 20th-century masters with a strong focus on in-depth research. Known for its uniquely curated exhibitions, the gallery has published over 300 art-historically recognized books and collaborated with the world’s leading museums and scholars. Representing and working with important 20th-century artist estates such as Yves Klein, Louise Nevelson, Wifredo Lam, Roberto Matta, and Miro, Galerie Gmurzynska has its primary gallery locations in Zurich and New York.

The gallery was founded in 1965 in Cologne, Germany, by Antonina Gmurzynska. From the beginning, the gallery was interested in organizing exhibitions with a historical documentary character through exhibited works and accompanying publications. Up until 1971, the gallery’s program focused on Surrealism, Constructivism, and the Russian Avant-garde. Subsequently, classical modern with a special focus on Picasso, Kurt Schwitters, Fernand Léger, Lyonel Feininger, and Robert and Sonia Delaunay were incorporated into the gallery’s program. From 1986, Krystyna Gmurzynska continued expanding the gallery’s classic modern program, and in 1991, the Cologne building, the ‘Red Cube,’ designed by Roger Diener, was inaugurated. 40 years after its establishment, the gallery relocated from Cologne to its new flagship location in Zurich’s Paradeplatz in 2005, on the same block in which the Dada movement was founded in 1917. The Paradeplatz gallery hosts the final interior architectural project of Zaha Hadid, conceived for the DADA centennial in 2016 for a major Kurt Schwitters retrospective.

Galerie Gmurzynska is located at 595 Madison Avenue, Suite 607, New York, NY 10022 and is open Monday through Friday from 10 AM – 6 PM. For more information on the gallery, its artists, and activities, please visit Galerie Gmurzynska