Existing comment:
Photo reproduction of Rufino Tamayo's America, 1955
Vinylite and sand on canvas
original artwork: 158 x 560 in.
Originally commissioned by the Bank of the Southwest, Houston, Texas
Private collection
Tamayo's portable murals from the 1950s reconceived the form and subjects of Mexican muralism. Commissioned by the Bank of the Southwest in Houston, Texas, America envisions the epic origins of the hemisphere. Tamayo's mestizo allegory -- situated between the personifications of Europe and indigenous America -- recalls the centrality of Picasso's horse in Guernica. Yet rather than evoke the tragedies of war, the figure conjures the distant past. Her open mouth and outstretched arm can suggest the shock of birth or the violence of conquest. The three figures are surrounded by symbolic motifs including corn, a Christian cross, a serpent representing the Aztec deity Quetzalcoatl, and an oil geyser, a possible allusion to a Texan industry. By the time Tamayo painted this mural, some US critics dismissed his figurative art. Tamayo remained undeterred because his figuration was key to his definition of humanism and his desire to communicate with his audience. |