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拍品专文
We are grateful to art historian Juan Carlos Pereda for his assistance in cataloguing this work, published here for the first time.
Rufino Tamayo's first trip to New York in 1926 proved decisive for the evolution of his art. Armed with the aesthetic resources culled from his study of pre-Columbian sculpture, popular art and plein air painting, Tamayo was reenergized as he discovered the City's museums and, in his own words, saw "true painting." The latter led to a rather rigorous process of reflection on the aesthetic values of modern art that would greatly inform the development of his mature style. Here Tamayo drew upon the lessons of Cézanne, Gris, Picasso, Matisse, Chagall, De Chirico, and Léger, among others, along with the subtle forms of western Mexican indigenous ceramics, as well as his fascination with popular toys and with an iconography derived from the seemingly mundane threads of daily life.
Soldados reflects a highly skilled and delicate handling of brush work that in many ways supersedes the artist's use of color in order to highlight volume and texture. The resulting grisaille evinces the level of painterly virtuosity Tamayo was able to achieve. Although the soldier theme is atypical for the artist it may be linked to his interest in Léger's machine aesthetic, which is also relevant to the Estridentismo movement then in vogue in Mexico.
The solid geometric structure of the composition, established through diagonals, further accentuates the indigenous physiognomies of the soldiers, who are eminently Mexican. An implied sense of motion could be indicative of another artistic discipline that fascinated Tamayo--film. The structure of the scene, the still motion aesthetic, the use of color and the format of the work, all evoke references to documentary style projected images which Tamayo considered worthy of painting.
During his sojourn in New York, Tamayo executed a series of small-scale monochromatic works, as cover illustrations for various editions of the magazine New Masses, published between 1926 and 1929. At least four editions of the magazine bearing Tamayo's cover illustrations are known and this painting may have been destined for such purpose. But regardless of its initial intent, the discovery of this work enables us to look with fresh insight at Tamayo's early oeuvre as he processed the language of modernism and crafted his own unique style.
Juan Carlos Pereda, art historian, Mexico City
Rufino Tamayo's first trip to New York in 1926 proved decisive for the evolution of his art. Armed with the aesthetic resources culled from his study of pre-Columbian sculpture, popular art and plein air painting, Tamayo was reenergized as he discovered the City's museums and, in his own words, saw "true painting." The latter led to a rather rigorous process of reflection on the aesthetic values of modern art that would greatly inform the development of his mature style. Here Tamayo drew upon the lessons of Cézanne, Gris, Picasso, Matisse, Chagall, De Chirico, and Léger, among others, along with the subtle forms of western Mexican indigenous ceramics, as well as his fascination with popular toys and with an iconography derived from the seemingly mundane threads of daily life.
Soldados reflects a highly skilled and delicate handling of brush work that in many ways supersedes the artist's use of color in order to highlight volume and texture. The resulting grisaille evinces the level of painterly virtuosity Tamayo was able to achieve. Although the soldier theme is atypical for the artist it may be linked to his interest in Léger's machine aesthetic, which is also relevant to the Estridentismo movement then in vogue in Mexico.
The solid geometric structure of the composition, established through diagonals, further accentuates the indigenous physiognomies of the soldiers, who are eminently Mexican. An implied sense of motion could be indicative of another artistic discipline that fascinated Tamayo--film. The structure of the scene, the still motion aesthetic, the use of color and the format of the work, all evoke references to documentary style projected images which Tamayo considered worthy of painting.
During his sojourn in New York, Tamayo executed a series of small-scale monochromatic works, as cover illustrations for various editions of the magazine New Masses, published between 1926 and 1929. At least four editions of the magazine bearing Tamayo's cover illustrations are known and this painting may have been destined for such purpose. But regardless of its initial intent, the discovery of this work enables us to look with fresh insight at Tamayo's early oeuvre as he processed the language of modernism and crafted his own unique style.
Juan Carlos Pereda, art historian, Mexico City