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Indonesian Art
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Rufino Tamayo
Dogs (Perros)
1941
30 1/8 x 40 in. (76.5 x 101.6 cm)
Oil on canvas
© Estate of the artist in support of Fundación Olga y Rufino Tamayo, A.C.
80.14
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This work by the Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo showcases the skillful way in which he combines two distinct aesthetic traditions: Pre-Columbian imagery and European modernism. Tamayo´s artistic education and training helped bring about this merger: he studied artwork in Mexico City and headed the ethnographic division of the National Museum of Anthropology before moving to New York City. Tamayo claimed that his palette was usually very limited, for "the secret of color consists… in the proper use of just a few, from which one may extract all the qualities of tone". The colors in this piece, however, become a visual feast reminiscent of works by Henri Matisse. Moreover, the non-romanticizing way in which Tamayo features his cultural heritage sets him apart from the Mexican muralists and their ideology. Tamayo rejected the notion that they had created a truly "Mexican" art, for the materials and the formal elements they used were all found in the Italian Renaissance.
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. George R. Brown
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Related Exhibitions & Collections:
Latin American Art
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