Tamayo (English spelling) Rufino Tamayo

Mexican painter. Together with Rivera, Siqueiros, and Orozco, he formed the Mexican art world. He was born in Oaxaca as the son of a poor Indian. As a boy, he went to Mexico City and made a living as a fruit seller in the market, but then he entered the San Carlos School of Fine Arts and studied painting. However, he was not satisfied with the school's curriculum, so he dropped out after one year and continued to paint on his own. Fortunately, at the young age of 22, he became the director of the ethnography department of the National Museum of Anthropology, and as an Indian, he was in contact with and familiar with the ancient Mexican culture and Indian art of his ancestors, while also being influenced by the Ecole de Paris in France. Therefore, unlike the other three, his style of painting is abstract, and is not a muralist but a tableau painter. In addition, he has a chaotic fantasy and lyricism rooted in the magical feelings of the Indians, and can be said to be the most Mexican of the four masters. However, the Mexican art world, including Siqueiros, was extremely political, fuelled by the Mexican Revolution and the mural movement for the people, and he was criticised as a counter-revolutionary and unpatriotic. So in 1926 he held a solo exhibition in New York, where he received high praise, and left his home country to continue his work, based in Paris, where he gained many admirers in European countries. In his later years he returned to Mexico. His representative works include "Women of Teutantepec," "Woman Reaching for the Moon," "Hymn to the Indian," "Venus in the Bedroom," and "The Singer."

[Mitsusada Fukasaku]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

メキシコの画家。リベラ、シケイロス、オロスコとともにメキシコ画壇を形成した。貧しいインディオの子としてオアハカ州に生まれる。少年時代はメキシコ市に出て市場の果物売りで生活していたが、サン・カルロス美術学校に入学、絵画を学ぶ。しかし、学校の傾向に飽き足らず1年で退学し、独学で絵画を続けた。さいわいなことに、22歳の若さで国立人類博物館民俗局長となり、インディオである彼は祖先の古代メキシコ文化やインディオ芸術に接して親しみ、一方でフランスのエコール・ド・パリの影響も受けた。そのため、彼の画風は他の3人と異なり、抽象的であり、壁画派でなくタブロー派である。また、インディオの呪術(じゅじゅつ)的心情に根を下ろしたカオス的幻想と叙情をもち、4人の巨匠のうちもっともメキシコ的画家といえよう。しかし、シケイロスをはじめとするメキシコ画壇は、メキシコ革命、民衆のための壁画運動に燃え、きわめて政治的であったので、彼は反革命、非愛国者のそしりを受けた。そこで彼は1926年ニューヨークで個展を開いて高い評価を受けると、祖国を離れパリに本拠を置いて制作を続け、ヨーロッパ諸国に多くの愛好者をもった。晩年はメキシコに戻っている。代表作には『テウタンテペックの女性』『月に手をのべる女』『インディオ讃歌(さんか)』『寝室のビーナス』『歌う人』などがある。

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