Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991)

Acquired from the artist
Mr. & Mrs. Irving Richards, New York
Mary-Anne Martin/Fine Art, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner (November 29, 1995)

Cincinnati, The Cincinnati Modern Art Society, Rufino Tamayo, January 10-February 3, 1947, no. 19
Mexico City, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Museo Nacional de Artes Plásticas, Tamayo. 20 años de su labor pictórica, September 1948, no. 53, illustrated
Venice, XXV Bienale di Venezia, June-September, 1950, no. 59, p. 361
Mexico City, Salón de la Plástica Mexicana, INBA, Exposición de obras recientes de Rufino Tamayo, June 25-July 16, 1951, no. 1

Robert Goldwater, Tamayo, New York, 1947, no. LXXII,  p. 113, illustrated
"The Tiger's Eye", Arts and Letters, October 1947, p. 63, illustrated
Justino Fernández, Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City, 1948
Fausto Castillo, "La Pintura desconcertante de Rufino Tamayo," June 7, 1951, p. 37, illustrated
Rafael Tovar, Teresa del Conde et al., Tamayo, 1998, p. 109, illustrated in color

This painting has a lining adhered with glue which seems to have stabilized the paint layer. The paint layer does not appear to be varnished and there do not appear to be any retouches visible either under ultraviolet light or to the naked eye, except possibly some small spots of restoration in the upper left corner in red paper object being help by the child. The reason for the lining is unknown, but there is no reason to doubt the health of the painting. This condition report has been prepared courtesy of Simon Pakes Art Conservation.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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Rufino Tamayo had been interested in depicting the human figure from the time of his scholastic training at the Academia de San Carlos in 1917.  As the young artist became increasingly cognizant of European modernism his method of painting evolved.  While recognizing the new direction of art being created in Europe, Tamayo made a conscientious effort to honor his compatriots by incorporating into his painting themes that were endemic to his country, which is especially visible in his honoring of the everyday lives of Mexican peasants.  The intent of this imagery was not to convey socio-political messages; Tamayo was simply interested in representing Mexican subjects in his own modernist idiom.

Emily Genauer writes, "It was in the early forties that Tamayo, painting the human figure, began breaking it up into fragments...  He was totally involved with shapes and their accommodation into composition" (E. Genauer, Rufino Tamayo, New York, 1974, p. 44).  During this period he became more interested in intensifying the geometry and color abstraction of his figures.  The use of dark earth tones dominated his oeuvre through the 1940s.  Madre divertiendo a su hijo is a key painting which displays the successful distillation of the human figure into a complex marriage of abstracted color planes.  The kaleidoscopic effect of shapes in hues of burnt sienna, red, black, mustard and gray create a symphony of rhythmic patterns. The successive placement of red-colored shapes creates order from chaos, revealing the blanket upon which the matron sits. Flesh has been represented in clay tones of brown and ochre.  The "chapopote" black pays homage to the ceramic traditions of pre-Columbian Mexican art, which was avidly collected by Tamayo.

Throughout his prolific career, Tamayo repeated the mantra that, unlike the Muralists, he was creating art for art's sake.  Madre divertiendo a su hijo echoes that call in his exploration of the universal theme of motherhood in the post-war era.  Painted in 1946, a year after a terrible global conflict that had either killed or uprooted tens of millions of lives, the current work is an affirmation of life.  In the present work, the mother entertains her child by playing with a ball of yarn.  The thread in the composition may be an allusion to family ties.  Women and children are the fabric of humanity and they are the catalyst for holding the social order together.  In Madre divertiendo a su hijo Tamayo pays homage to women, the unsung heroes who warm our hearths and are the keepers of our culture.

Fig. 1 Rufino and Olga Tamayo, circa 1946 (Photograph courtesy of Irving Richards, New York)