Spotlight: Rufino Tamayo: Graphic Art

Last update: June 18, 2009 - 5:28 PM

RUFINO TAMAYO: GRAPHIC ART

Reception today: Colorful and highly personal, the lithographs that Mexican modernist Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991) produced late in his life are textured by cubism, surrealism, fauvism, futurism and other defining "isms" of the 20th century. Unlike murals of his famous compatriots Diego Rivera, José Orozco and David Siqueiros, Tamayo's images are always distinctly personal and idiosyncratic rather than political. Largely self-taught, Tamayo began his career at the National Archaeological Museum in Mexico City, where he studied the Pre-Columbian art whose rough designs and figurative imagery also seeped into his work. An internationalist, he lived and worked in Paris and New York during the 1940s and '50s before returning to his homeland. There his images of nebulous figures, starry skies, musicians, abstractions, villages, animals barking at the moon and slices of watermelon earned him enduring affection and acclaim. His "Campesina" is shown here. To mark the bicentennial of Mexican independence and the centennial of the Mexican revolution, the Mexican consulate in St. Paul is sponsoring a show of Tamayo's late lithographs and "mixografia," his personal method of enriching the depth and texture of his printed art. (Reception 6-8:30 p.m. today, free. Katherine E. Nash Gallery, Regis Center for Art, University of Minnesota West Bank campus, 405 21st Av. S., Mpls. Ends July 10, free. 612-624-7530 or www.nash.umn.edu)

MARY ABBE

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