This Mexican artist was born in Oaxaca
on August 26, at the turn of the 19th century in 1899. Losing
his mother at a young age, Tamayo went to live in Mexico City
in 1911 where he grew up with an aunt. Working at a fruit
stand to make a living and taking classes at San Carlos Academy,
he soon began exploring with paintings, and in 1921, was designated
as head of the Ethnographic Painting Department of the National
Museum of Archaeology. In 1925 he rented a studio where he
could begin working seriously with his art and a year later
he presented his first exhibition and moved to New York, returning
a few years later to teach at the School of Fine Arts in Mexico.
He worked extensively in Mexico and also in
the United States, exhibiting his works of art in cities such
as San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Cincinnati. He worked
at the Brooklyn Museum Art School and painted the mural at
the Hillyer Art Library of Northampton, Massachusetts, U.S.A
and also went to Europe, presenting Works in Italy, France
and Brussels and catching the attention of the critics.
Tamayo lived a very long life and finally passed
away in 1991. An biographic movie on Tamayo’s life was
made in 1970 and again in 1973. This renowned Mexican artists,
known form his great murals has received many prestigious
awards and prizes from prominent art institutes and other
organizations, such as the 1964 National Arts Award, the Colouste
Gulbekian Award from the Institute of Arts of Paris (1969),
the Legion of Honor of France (1970), Predliet Son of the
Government of Oaxaca, Mexico (1972), among several others.
Works by Rufino Tamayo:
Two Women at the Window (Dos mujeres
en la ventana)
Landscape with rocks (Paisaje con rocas)
Clock and Telephone (Reloj y teléfono)
The Phonograph (El fonógrafo)
Two Mexican Girls (Dos niñas mexicanas)
A Couple with a Cactus (Pareja con maguey)
