Mexican painter Rufino Tamayo returns to his own museum after 8 years

After 8 years, the Tamayo Museum of Contemporary Art will present Rufino Tamayo's work and private collection as part of the exhibits Rufino Tamayo. Painter's First Decades: 1920-1959 and Tamayo Museum's Private Collection.

The museum has created a space that will feature a collection of Tamayo's own paintings, as well as his own private collection of internationally renowned artists. Minister of Culture, Rafael Tovar y de Teresa, says it's inconceivable that a museum dedicated to Rufino Tamayo doesn't actually display any of his work.

The Minister of Culture went on to say that it's a priority for him to allow children, young people and adults to appreciate the work, which has been stored away for years, by these artists who played such an important role in art from the 20th century.

The exhibits will not only focus on the Oaxacan painter's earliest work, but also on his work as a private collector, with paintings by artists who were his friends and contemporaries.

The exhibit will feature around 80 paintings, drawings, graphic designs and sculptures from the painter's earlier creative era, where he established himself as an artist and grew thanks in part to his time abroad in New York from 1936 to 1949 and then in Paris from 1950 to 1958.

At the exhibit, visitors will also find over 40 paintings from the Tamayo's private collection, which include Francis Bacon's Two Figures with a Monkey, Joan Miró's Peniture, Barbara Hepwoerth's Square Form with Circles, Antoni Tàpies' Figures, 1960 and finally, Alberto Giacometti's The Artist's Mother, which has never been displayed before due to the highly sensitive silverpoint on paper technique used by Giacometti.

For the time being, the Museum plans on making both of these exhibits permanent collections with select work rotated on an annual basis with other pieces owned by the Museum that are currently stored away.