Tamayo: A Modern Icon Reinterpreted

by Diana C. Du Pont

Rufino Arellanes Tamayo was a leading Modernist who brought Mexico international acclaim through his development of a new form of abstract figuration, that ultimately made him one of the most recognized and respected painters of the twentieth century. A Zapotecan Indian born in the state of Oaxaca in 1889, he was exposed as a young man to the cultural wealth of pre-Colombian Mexico while working as a draftsman at the National Museum of Archeology in Mexico City. While his contemporaries Siqueiros, Rivera and Orozco were advocating art with a message, often political, Tamayo's work focused on plastic forms integrated with a masterful use of colors and textures. Early in his creative life, Tamayo kept strict linear perspective, and later he explored Cubist issues, but in the end he created a style that was all his own, participating in the development of "Mixografia," a graphic technique used to obtain colored and textured three-dimensional printing on handmade paper. Published on the occasion of the first major U.S. exhibition of Tamayo's work in nearly 30 years, curated by Diana C. du Pont with Juan Carlos Pereda, A Modern Icon Reinterpreted offers a comprehensive view of the artist's work throughout his life, accompanied by eight wide-ranging essays featuring fresh new readings from top scholars. This detailed study of Tamayo's creative methodology is the most complete book on the artist to be published in more than 10 years.

Hardcover

First published January 15, 2007