Rufino Tamayo

Painter, born in Oaxaca, S Mexico. He studied at the School of Fine Arts, Mexico City, and became engrossed in tribal sculpture as a curator at the National Museum of Archaeology (1921–6). His own style combined pre-Columbian art with the art of modern Europe. Among his works are ‘The Birth of Nationality’ and ‘Mexico Today’ (1952–3) for the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City, and murals in the UNESCO building in Paris.

In his paintings, Tamayo expressed what he believed was the traditional Mexico and did not follow the more politically based paintings that many of his contemporaries such as José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, Oswaldo Guayasamin and David Alfaro Siqueiros did. Tamayo and another artist, Lea Remba, were the first artists to create a new type of printed artwork called "mixografía".

Tamayo also painted murals, some of which – including Nacimiento de la nacionalidad ("Birth of the Nationality"), 1952 – are displayed inside Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes opera house.

The Tamayo Contemporary Art Museum (Museo Tamayo de Arte Contemporáneo), located on Paseo de la Reforma as it crosses Chapultepec Park, was opened in 1981 as a repository for the collections that Rufino and his wife, Olga, acquired during their lifetimes and ultimately gifted to the nation.

Tamayo also built another art museum in his home city of Oaxaca,Oazaca, the Museo Rufino Tamayo.

In 1972 Tamayo was the subject of the documentary film, Rufino Tamayo: The Sources of his Art by Gary Conklin.