Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991)

Acquired from the artist
Private Collection, Mexico

New York, Marlborough Gallery, Rufino Tamayo, Recent Paintings 1980-1990, September 26-October 16, 1990,  no. 31
Mexico City, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Internacional Rufino Tamayo, Tamayo: Su idea del hombre, August 26-October 31, 1999, cat. 57, p. 91, illustrated in color
Mexico City, Museo Tamayo, Tamayo/Trayectos, August 26, 2012-April 14, 2013, p. 175, illustrated in color

Octavio Paz and Jacques Lassaigne, Rufino Tamayo, Barcelona, 1995, no. 281, p. 304, illustrated in color
Teresa del Conde, et. al., Tamayo, Mexico City, 1998, p. 192, illustrated in color
Laura Viadas, "Idea y hombre en Rufino Tamayo", Barro Sur, October 1999, p. 16, illustrated in color
Ingrid Suckaer, Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City, 2000, p. 440-1, discussed; also illustrated in color on the cover
Edward J. Sullivan, et. al., 10 Maestros de la plástica mexicana, Mexico, 2003, p. 164, illustrated in color
Raquel Tibol, Nuevo Realismo y posvanguardia en la Américas, Mexico, 2003, p. 71, discussed
Juan Arturo Brennan, el. al., Cuerpo y espíritu, Medicina y creación musical, Mexico City, 2004, p. 6, illustrated in color

This work is typical of the artist. There is no damage to the work. The canvas may be stretched on its original stretcher. There are no losses, and there do not seem to be any restorations. The work is unvarnished, but it is cleaned. It is recommended that it be hung in its current condition. (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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Three months after an important heart surgery in Houston, Tamayo traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia in February 1990 to open his exhibition Rufino Tamayo: Paintings and Graphic work at the Hermitage. This exhibition would travel to Berlin in May. Tamayo was visibly tired by the travels and by his health condition. At 91 years of age, his health was becoming frail and Tamayo did not visit his studio for months. Ingrid Suckaer, one of his late biographers tells us about the circumstances in which he painted El Muchacho del Violón, 1990: “ One day, José Manuel Robles Zárate and his wife Martha Gómez visited the Tamayos in his San Ángel home [ in Mexico City]. They found Tamayo un-motivated. Martha suggested that he should go back to painting so he could feel bette[...] and she proposed he should paint a musician with an instrument and she even offered to bring him [ their common friend]  Norma Braun´s red violin. When Tamayo saw the violin, he did not like the color but soon after, he started painting El Muchacho del Violón” [1] , his last painting.

El Muchacho del Violón is a powerful testimony of the artist´s perfect control of his craft at the end of his career. It is easy to see the back and forth with the color of the background against which the young musician stands with a sense of gravity. The painting is articulated around the triangle suggested by the neck and the tail piece of the violin and the bow. The verticality of the scene is reinforced by the stool seat and the right foot of the young boy which also anchors the composition to the floor. The abstract background is composed of flag-like horizontal stripes. The effect of the red shirt over the reddish or pinkish background is a chromatic tour de force: to be more visually effective, Tamayo could have used contrasted colors. The elegance of the red range on top of the grey and ochre zones seems to frame the brown violin which stands in the middle of the painting as if it was the composition´s center of interest. Tamayo also used dots of light blue paint in the central part to help animate the transition between the musician and the background. Finally, as Tamayo painted the face and the violin, he scratched the surface with a firm hand to shape the strings of the instrument and the facial features of the young musician.

Tamayo chose this painting as one of the most important works to be exhibited in his last solo exhibition Rufino Tamayo, Recent Paintings 1980-1990 which took place at Marlborough Gallery in New York later that year.

[1] Rufino Tamayo, Aproximaciones, Editorial Praxis, August, 2000, pp 440 and 441, , Mexico City