Rufino Tamayo is a dominant figure in 20^th century Modernism.  Beginning with drawing lessons at age 16, Tamayo became Head of the Department of Ethnographic Drawing at the Museo Nacional de Arqueologia in Mexico City at the age of 23.  The first exhibition of his paintings in the United States was in New York City, in 1926. Tamayo won numerous important commissions to paint murals, including the Escuela Nacional de Musica in Mexico City, and the UNESCO building in Paris. The French government named him Chevalier and then Officier de la Legion D'Honneur in 1956 and 1969 respectively. Significant retrospectives of Tamayo's works include the Sao Paolo Bienal in 1977 and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, in 1979. Tamayo died in Mexico City in 1991. His haunting modernism is eternal.

Click on the thumbnails below to view an expanded image of some of Rufino Tamayo's work currently in our collection.