Rufino Tamayo was born in Oaxaca, Mexico. He studied at the Academia de Bellas Artes in Mexico City and worked there until 1936 when he moved to New York, where he taught at the Dalton School and the Brooklyn Museum. He moved to Paris in 1954 and then back to his homeland ten years later. His style, while showing expressionist and semiabstract elements, is strongly indebted to native, ancient art forms. Tamayo says, with conviction, that the spirit and soul are still valid beneath our mechanized, over-hyped societal structure. In 1972 a street in Oaxaca was named after Tamayo, and in 1974 he donated a museum to that city for the permanent exhibit of his own extensive collection of pre-Columbian art. Tamayo has been honored with many prestigious awards. His work is frequently exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the world and is included in many important private and public collections. |
