Rufino Tamayo: Mexico’s Avant-Garde Modern Artist

I’ve always loved Rufino Tamayo as an artist and a muralist. Little did I know he was also an avid art collector of Mesoamerican Art. During my stay in Oaxaca, I visited the Tamayo Museum of Pre-Columbian Art of Mexico and was blown away by the throve of ancient archeological artifacts collected by Tamayo and gifted to the city he was born in. This avant-garde modern artist has two museums named after him for good reason, leaving behind a legacy unequal to most artists of his era…

Who is Rufino Tamayo?

Rufino Tamayo was born in 1899 in Oaxaca, both poor and an orphan, and died at 92 in 1991. During his life journey, Tamayo had become an internationally known artist and muralist. Among the many artists of his era, he collaborated with Pablo Picasso, whose work he deeply admired. In fact, in many of Tamayo‘s paintings and graphics, you can see Picasso’s influence. What is different about Tamayo’s works when compared with Picasso is how he has combined abstraction with an indigenous motif of his cultural…