Art of the 20th Century
Rufino Tamayo
Rufino Tamayo
(b Oaxaca, 29 Aug 1899; d 24 June 1991).
Mexican painter, printmaker, sculptor and collector. He is one of a select group of Mexican painters who attained international reputations in the 20th century, in his case sustained over a long and varied career. Opposed to the ideological current represented by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco, he eschewed ephemeral political messages in favour of purely pictorial and aesthetic questions. He came from a region in Mexico noted for its traditions and indigenous groups, its Pre-Columbian art and highly-coloured popular art, all of which influenced his work as early as Woman in Grey (1931; Mexico City, Mus. A. Mod.), a primitivistic image of a female nude. Throughout his life he collected more than 1000 Pre-Columbian ceramics and sculptures, donating them in 1974 to the people of Oaxaca as the Museo de Arte Prehispánico.
