Rufino Tamayo

Nina a la puerta

Nina a la puerta https://collections.artsmia.org/art/55494/

© D.R. Rufino Tamayo / Herederos / México. Fundación Olga y Rufino Tamayo, A.C.

Watermelon https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/103812

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Gershinowitz © Rufino Tamayo / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Man Searching the Heavens https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/227875

Watermelons

Watermelons https://www.wikiart.org/en/rufino-tamayo/watermelons-1977

Gift of Mrs. Henry T. Ricketts

Woman in Mauve https://www.artic.edu/artworks/34681/

Watermelons

Watermelons https://www.wikiart.org/en/rufino-tamayo/watermelons

Friend of the Birds

Friend of the Birds https://www.wikiart.org/en/rufino-tamayo/friend-of-the-birds-1944

Rufino Tamayo tried to move past the nationalist themes favored by the generation of Mexican artists that preceded him and toward more universal ones. While working in France in 1959, he produced a series of lithographs illustrating the chapters of the New Testament book of Revelation, Saint John the Divine’s vision of things to come. Included were images of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse: Conquest, War, Famine, and Death. Death is front and center here. "I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth." (Revelation 6:8) Death displays consummate horsemanship, riding without saddle or reins, but his steed seems a little spooked. Perhaps Hades is gaining on them'

Death on a Pale Horse, from Apocalypse of Saint John https://collections.artsmia.org/art/44282/

abstracted landscape; red-brown mountina shape with lines, "cracks"; mottled blue-black sky; pale yellow moon orb Rufino Tamayo was a leading 20th-century Latin American paintner and printmaker who was active both in Mexico and the United States. During the 1940s, he worked with Stanley Hayter at the celebrated print workshop Atelier 17, then located in New York City. He pursued traditional subjects in his art, typically avoiding the leftist political content found in the work of many of his fellow Mexican artists. He produced this austere nocturnal landscape using the intaglio process of mixografia, a three-dimensional printing technique he helped invent. It was developed to capture textures and surface details more commonly seen in painting, collage, or bas-relief. The labor-intensive process requires a high-pressure printing press to simultaneously emboss thick handmade paper and transfer one or more colors.

Paisaje con luna https://collections.artsmia.org/art/43989/

Print and Drawing Club Fund

Two Women https://www.artic.edu/artworks/77059/

Gift of Kleiner, Bell & Co.

Man at the Door http://www.moma.org/collection/works/76865

Print and Drawing Club Fund

Coyote https://www.artic.edu/artworks/77063/

Inter-American Fund

Man, Moon and Stars http://www.moma.org/collection/works/68273

Gift of Kleiner, Bell & Co.

Profile of a Man http://www.moma.org/collection/works/76844

Print and Drawing Club Fund

Untitled https://www.artic.edu/artworks/77061/

Desnudo en gris

Desnudo en gris https://collections.artsmia.org/art/55496/

© D.R. Rufino Tamayo / Herederos / México. Fundación Olga y Rufino Tamayo, A.C.

Man With Hands Clasped https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/64970

© D.R. Rufino Tamayo / Herederos / México. Fundación Olga y Rufino Tamayo, A.C.

Woman Standing Beside Table https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/71141

Gift of Kleiner, Bell & Co.

Man at the Door http://www.moma.org/collection/works/76865

Mujer en gris

Mujer en gris https://www.wikiart.org/en/rufino-tamayo/mujer-en-gris-1931

Watermelons

Watermelons https://www.wikiart.org/en/rufino-tamayo/watermelons-1977

Gift of Kleiner, Bell & Co.

Ghost http://www.moma.org/collection/works/76829

Desnudo en naranja

Desnudo en naranja https://collections.artsmia.org/art/55499/

A barking, wide-mouthed mongrel dog is a subject Rufino Tamayo, an indigenous Mexican artist, often revisited. Fiercely independent, Tamayo rejected the political themes of Mexican muralists like Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, who were viewed as national celebrities. Instead, Tamayo focused on the formal elements of art, such as color, shape, and balance. He was greatly influenced by modern European art movements like Cubism and Surrealism, merging those artistic approaches with themes and subjects from Mexican culture.

Perro Aullando https://collections.artsmia.org/art/9791/

The Family

The Family https://collections.artsmia.org/art/1387/

Gift of Marvin Small

Head http://www.moma.org/collection/works/70027

These colors may not recall the typical Mexican palette, but they are Mexican nonetheless. They are the paint colors that villagers use on their houses, Rufino Tamayo says. "These are very cheap colors, the only ones the people can afford." This synthesis of old and new Mexico marks Tamayo's work. As a young man in 1921 he was head of the ethnographic drawing department at Mexico's National Museum of Anthropology. His office was in the middle of the pre-Columbian collections. That and his Zapotec Indian parentage led to a personal style of primitivism. His highly textured figures, says one critic, have a "flayed, corroded, vibrating look."

Mujer india https://collections.artsmia.org/art/55493/

Gift of Kleiner, Bell & Co.

Woman http://www.moma.org/collection/works/76826

Rufino Tamayo tried to move past the nationalist themes favored by the generation of Mexican artists that preceded him and toward more universal ones. While working in France in 1959, he produced a series of lithographs illustrating the chapters of the New Testament book of Revelation, Saint John the Divine’s vision of things to come. Included were images of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse: Conquest, War, Famine, and Death. Death is front and center here. "I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth." (Revelation 6:8) Death displays consummate horsemanship, riding without saddle or reins, but his steed seems a little spooked. Perhaps Hades is gaining on them'

Death on a Pale Horse, from Apocalypse of Saint John https://collections.artsmia.org/art/44282/

Dog and Serpent

Dog and Serpent https://www.slam.org/collection/objects/1248/