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RUFINO TAMAYO, 1899-1991

Mujer en un interior, 1977
Oil and sand on canvas. 51 x 38 in. (129.5 x 96.5 cm). Signed and dated "Tamayo 0-77" upper right and titled and dated on the reverse.

PROVENANCE Acquired from the artist; Mr. and Mrs. Manuel Reyero, Mexico City; Bernard Lewin Galleries, Beverly Hills
EXHIBITED New York, Mary-Anne Martin Fine Art, Rufino Tamayo Paintings 1937-1977, November 26, 1983 - January 31, 1984, n.n.; Berlin, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Rufino Tamayo 1990, May 2 - June 10, 1990, p. 312, no. 121; Nagoya, Nagoya City Art Museum; Kamakura, Museum of Modern Art; Kyoto, National Museum of Modern Art, Rufino Tamayo Retrospectiva, October 9, 1993 - March 21, 1994, p. 138, no. 69, illustrated in color p. 94.
LITERATURE R. Tamayo, Addendum, Beverly Hills, p. 55, no. 54 (illustrated); Staatliche Kunsthalle, ed., Rufino Tamayo 1990, Berlin, 1990, p. 312 (illustrated); National Museum of Modern Art, ed., Rufino Tamayo Retrospectiva, Kyoto, 1993, p. 138, no. 69 (illustrated)

"Tamayo openly and freely melded modernist concepts and practices from Mexico, Europe, and the United States: his fusion modernism forged links between the Mexican School, the New York School, and European fi gure painting of the 1940s and 1950s… Tamayo was committed to the human experience as the primary subject of art, while remaining dedicated to the modernist ethos of formal experimentation."   D. C. du Pont, Tamayo: A Modern Icon Reinterpreted, Miami, 2007     Born of Zapotec decent in Oaxaca, Mexico in 1899, Rufi no Tamayo is considered one of the most important Mexican painters of the twentieth century. Heavily infl uenced by both Cubism and Fauvism in his art, Tamayo also integrated anthropological themes distinctive of his Mesoamerican cultural identity.Tamayo was an outsider in post Revolutionary Mexico. Politically neutral and opposing his Mexican contemporaries' commitment to public art, evidenced in the murals of Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros, Tamayo preferred to keep his artwork unrelated and separate from the tumultuous political climate. The subjects of his artwork tended more towards everyday domesticity and humanity, as seen through his still lifes, figurative works and interior scenes.In Mujer en un interior, Tamayo skillfully depicts a nude female fi gure in a Pre-Columbian style standing amidst an abstract and minimalist interior. Her torso faces the viewer while her face and legs are at a profi le— nod to Tamayo's Pre-Columbian stylistic sensibilities. Framed by the doorway, the lone fi gure is twisted, hand reaching for what appears to be a door knob. An alarm clock sits on a pedestal in the back corner of the room taking time further dramatizing the tension of the scene. Overall, the use of a dark color palate, the strong lines delineating the interior architecture of the room and the abstract female figure bring focus to the enigmatic narrative of the painting.     Mujer en un interior is a quintessential example of Tamayo's paintings. The artist harmoniously and elegantly marries minimalism and abstraction with Pre-Columbian forms creating a characteristic style that is distinctively his. Drawing on Mexican folk art and ceramics for their forms, rich use of color and texture and themes, Tamayo brings these historical tendencies to contemporary relevance by also incorporating sophisticated compositions more closely indebted to Cubism.

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