Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991)

The Collection of Edward Chodorov, Beverly Hills
The Collection of Miss Fanny Brice, Los Angeles
Mary-Anne Martin/Fine Art, New York

Nagoya, Nagoya City Art Museum, October 9-December 12, 1993; Kamakura, The Museum of Modern Art, December 1992-February 5, 1994; Kyoto, The National Museum of Modern Art; February 15-March 21, 1995, Rufino Tamayo Retrospective, no. 17, p. 34, illustrated in color
Mexico City, Fundación Cultural Televisa Centro Cultural Arte Contemporáneo, Rufino Tamayo del Reflejo al Sueño 1920 – 1950, October 19, 1995-February 25, 1996; no. 56, p. 46, illustrated in color

"Hoy se inaugura la exposición de Rufino Tamayo en el Pasaje América", El Universal, November 1935, illustrated
Robert Goldwater, Rufino Tamayo, New York, 1947, p. XVI, p. 56, illustrated
Justino Fernández, Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City, 1948
Ceferino Palencia, Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City, 1950, no. 4, illustrated
Octavio Paz, Transfiguraciones en Historia del Arte de Oaxaca, Mexico City, 1998, no. 5, pp. 16-7, illustrated in color
Octavio Paz, Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City, 2003, no. 5, illustrated in color
Diana C. DuPont, Juan Carlos Pereda, et. al., Tamayo; A Modern Icon Reinterpreted, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 2007, pl. 43, p. 162, illustrated in color

This work is in excellent condition. The canvas is unlined. Although some mild cracking has developed to the paint layer in a few areas, this does not suggest any instability to the paint layer itself. The painting is clean and varnished. The varnish is probably not original, but there do not appear to be any retouches. The work can be hung in its current state. (This condition report has been provided courtesy of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.)
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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Brimming with delicious delicacies and beverages, Naturaleza muerta is arguably the most accomplished early still-life by Rufino Tamayo, a tour de force in the history of modern Mexican painting.   

Magnificent in size and extraordinarily efficient in its use of compositional elements, Naturaleza muerta was painted during a period of intense artistic evolution. Tamayo's superb synthetic abilities--a stylistic characteristic that would continue throughout his long and fruitful career--appears evident in his appropriation of select European movements ranging from Surrealism to Cubism to Mexican folk art. As an early masterpiece, Naturaleza muerta embodies a decade in which artworks "reflect more explicitly on art-making of the period; they begin a conceptual dialogue with other artists and particularly with the Muralism and political art at the time." As a result, Tamayo's works from the 1930s can also be read as "metapaintings, hermetic to their specific references to the art world, as opposed to general issues of visual or material culture, and conceptual rather than poetic in its communicative intentions and signification." [1] 

Here painted again are Tamayo's succulent watermelons, evocative symbols of Mexicanness today so soundly associated with his painting. Brightly colored and strategically arranged at both ends of a long wooden table, they frame our perceptual field from back to front and back again, directing our attention to a translucent liquour bottle at the center of the composition. Labeled Mexico, it serves as one of the main axis of the painting; the other one placed directly behind it. It is on this second bottle that Tamayo's partial signature and dated reference appear indistinctly painted--a playful afterthought by the artist. A diagonal fish, juxtaposed across the surface of the table, seems to cut the composition in two. On the right, a serene classical still life reveals two watermelon slices anchored by a few Cezannesque apples. 

In the foreground, eight thinly painted rails serve a dual purpose: to enclose the picture plane onto itself and to deflect our attention to the grid pattern barely noticeable along the grey background. Deceptively decorative, these rails are reminiscent of those later employed by the artist in Nueva York desde la terraza of 1937 where they delineate the border and extreme corner of the terrace. Once again, Tamayo’s  pictorial language proves highly efficient in its use of formal elements. 

Unlike the right half, the left side of the composition appears conveniently accessible. Dark grapes, a coffee pot, a third watermelon slice and a white kitchen cloth balance each other with internal cohesion. While firmly painted on their support, a metaphysical quality reveals itself in the floating wooden table, a moment of magic realism in an otherwise classical rendition of a still-life. 

[1] Karen Cordero Reiman, "Appropriation, Invention, and Irony, Tamayo's Early Period, 1920-1937," Tamayo; A Modern Icon Reinterpreted, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 2007, p. 180