Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991)

oil and sand on canvas

Collection of the artist
John Senior, New York
Felix Landau, Los Angeles (circa 1960)
Private Collection, California (acquired from the above by the present owner)

Mexico City, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, 20 Años de su Labor Pictórica, June-September, 1948, no. 57, illustrated
Dallas, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Three Contemporary Mexican Painters David Alfaro Siqueiros, Diego Rivera y Rufino Tamayo, October 9-November 7, 1948, no. 17 
New York, Knoedler Galleries, April 24-May 13, 1950, no. 10
Washington D.C., Pan-American Union, October 14-November 15, 1952, no. 16

Enrique Gual, Tamayo, Mexico, Editorial Eugenio Fischgrund, 1950, illustrated
Paul Westheim, "Tamayo, una investigación estética," Artes de México, No. 12, Mexico, May-June, 1956, illustrated
Paul Westheim, Tamayo, Mexico City, Ediciones Artes de México, 1957, n.n., illustrated

This painting is unlined and may never have been removed from its stretcher. The paint layer is stable and probably clean, and any shine is most likely original. Under ultraviolet light there are some darker passages of paint however, there are no retouches and it is the original paint which reads slightly eccentrically. Furthermore, any scuffs or uneven passages, particularly in the upper right, are all original. The picture is in beautiful condition and should be hung as is. (This condition report has been provided courtesy of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.)
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By the end of World War II, Rufino Tamayo had begun to consider a series of profoundly humanistic issues with regards to man's nature and his defining role in the fate of modern history. And, although Tamayo was not interested in didacticism or in narrative paintings with facile interpretations, he did create metaphors and allegories of the human condition. The result of those concerns is a body of work that represents a series of characters whose crisis suggests the spiritual burden of man vis à vis the historically unprecedented and uncertain circumstances of modern life. Among the paintings that reflect these ideas are the two versions of the Atormentados (1948 and 1949), Locos I and II (1949), Terror Cósmico (1954) and El Quemado (1955).

 

However, the artist also developed an optimistic vision, having faith in the future of mankind and valuing the enormous and significant scientific and cultural advancements which had been achieved during this period. El Constructor expresses an allegory of the post-War man. It also contains a moving tribute to the ingenuity of modern man and his efforts to construct a new era of civilization, culture, and art.

 

This new man reborn from the catastrophe of war is capable of living with the same passion and interests for subjects as diametrically opposed as science and sports—two poles between which one may define man's spiritual and intellectual condition.

 

El Constructor's body is reminiscent of pre-Hispanic sculpture from western Mexico, while the figure is depicted grasping a complex constructed structure that he gazes at intently. A projection is cast from this structure onto the man's face, which in turn generates other reflections that bounce off the two triangles located around the head.

 

The bright, large room in which El Constructor is situated is profusely illuminated and has an enormous open window that alludes to the clarity and vastness of science, as well as the conditions of freedom and well-being required for intellectual creation. Perhaps this space also symbolizes man's new stage where each day he ascends another step in the road to progress. The room's floor duplicates the structure's complex geometric forms. The presence of a flute and a colorful ball, also found on the floor, function as unequivocal symbols of music and sports.

 

For Tamayo, El Constructor was like a new Prometheus who in this historical moment had not stolen the fire of knowledge from the gods to give to his brethren, as in that defining moment in antiquity, but rather in this modern renaissance, man has accomplished progress with his own ingenuity, effort and dedication. Tamayo was able to consolidate these ideas and express them eloquently and poetically with a contrasting, yet incredibly harmonious palette in order to celebrate with the viewer's of this painting man's extraordinary rebirth.