The Tamayo: A Solitary Mexican Modernist exhibit, which closed this weekend at the National Gallery of Canada and featured 18 oil paintings and 12 litographs by the Oaxacan painter, attracted almost 140,000 visitors.
This was the first exhibit dedicated exclusively to the work of Rufino Tamayo (1899 – 1991) at the museum, which was curated by Marisol Argüelles, sub-director of the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City, with the help of Erika Dolphin, associate curator from the National Gallery of Canada.
Tamayo: A Solitary Mexican Modernist, which formed part of the activities commemorating the 25th anniversary since the painter's passing, was visited by Enrique Peña Nieto, Barack Obama and Justin Trudeau during the Three Amigos Summit.
Rufino Tamayo differed from his contemporaries who focused primarily on painting politically charged murals, by focusing instead on paintings inspired by Pre-Colombian art, as well as European aesthetics. These marriage of styles gave rise to his unique paintings and came to represent Mexican modernist art.