Tamayo

Explores the influences between Mexican modernist Rufino Tamayo and the American art world at a time of unparalleled cross-cultural exchange.

Mexican American artist Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991) is best known for his boldly-coloured, semi-abstracted paintings portraying modern Mexican subjects and combining universal themes with a local sensibility. Tamayo: The New York Years looks in detail at Tamayo and his work in New York, where he lived from the late 1920s to 1949, as well as the response of other artists, like Barnett Newman, and critics such as Clement Greenberg.

Tamayo was drawn to New York at a time when the art world was shifting from Europe to New York, and immediately engaged with the new ideas expressed in the modern art that he saw in museums and galleries. Deeply impressed by the art of Pablo Picasso, especially following the MOMA retrospective which opened in 1939, Tamayo became an important figure in the mid-century modern art movement as it shifted to New York and the Americas and away from Europe.

Tamayo: The New York Years offers a unique opportunity to trace his artistic development through 60 works dating from 1925 to 1949 - from early woodcuts and bold canvasses, paintings depicting the modern sights of the city, to his dream-like works exploring celestial views of the constellations and heavens.

About the Author

E. Carmen Ramos is the curator of Latino art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.