Lot 12
  • 12

Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991)

Estimate
600,000 - 800,000 USD
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Description

  • Rufino Tamayo
  • Hombre con un farol
  • signed and dated O-77 upper right; also titled and dated on the reverse
  • oil and sand on canvas
  • 55 1/4 by 69 in.
  • 140 by 175 cm

Provenance

The Collection of Olga Tamayo, Mexico City
Private Collection, Mexico City
Private Collection, London
Sale: Christie's, New York, Latin American Sale, May 28, 2009, lot 55, illustrated in color
Acquired from the above by the present owner 

Exhibited

Tokyo, The National Museum of Modern Art, Rufino Tamayo, April 10-May 30, 1976, no. 72, illustrated 

Condition

This work is in very good condition overall. The canvas is unlined and well-stretched. The colors are vibrant, and the media layer is stable. One minor spot of paint loss is present in the lower right quadrant, in the area of olive green. Approximately one inch to the left of this spot, a fine vertical line of craquelure is present measuring approximately five inches in length.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991) reinstates the supremacy of the figure in Hombre con un farol (1976), a brilliantly executed painting oscillating between the metaphysical and the corporeal. Once practically extinguished in the early 1960s by the preeminence of dematerializing forms and color field backgrounds, humanity’s presence reemerges as paramount subject in Tamayo's late painting. Triumphantly released from the domain of pure abstraction, elongated thinned personages evoking isolated and otherworldly beings are tasked with repopulating and redefining space. Left behind are the richly applied shades of reds, pinks, and deep purple hues that so lavishly imbued Tamayo’s canvases with Parisian sensuality and indulgence. 

Ever so present in Tamayo’s work is the influence of his pre-Colombian heritage. Long after its first appearance in the 1930s, pre-Columbian and folk art traditions continued to serve Tamayo’s declaration for “universality;” a theme vastly overshadowed by the social realism that characterized much of Mexican artistic production during the first half of the twentieth-century. Lacking any facial features, the main character turns introspectively in search of meaning and identity, a perpetual existential quest. References to reality, never truly abandoned by the artist, are further materialized through the theatricality of the stage and the presence of monumental archetypes next to functional objects painted in an unusual scale: a grey ball floating amid space and an impossibly shortened street lantern in the foreground.

It has been said that a study should be made of the different positions adopted by the arms in the works of Tamayo. “They are, in all events, decisive.” (1) Whether open or closed, active or in repose, they communicate tone better than any other formal element. In Hombre con un farol, one arm is relaxed while the other one appears engaged in a menial action: turning on a street lantern. The promise of light and with it knowledge, symbolically alludes to Tamayo’s humanistic spirit; a belief in the universality of art across millennia and civilizations. 

(1) José Corredor-Matheos, Tamayo, Rizzoli, New York, 1987, pg. 24