Existing comment:
Encounter with Picasso
In 1939, two seismic cultural events in New York brought about a dramatic change in Tamayo's art: the Valentine Gallery's showing of Pablo Picasso's Guernica, the monumental tour deforce painting that denounced the Nazi bombing of a village in Spain, and Picasso's retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. Picasso's example as an artist engaged in the crises of his day encouraged Tamayo to address the mounting uncertainties of World War II. Inspired by Picasso's imagery and reliance on African art, Tamayo reconsidered the forms and myths of Mexico's pre-Hispanic and folk art as the basis for a series of wartime paintings featuring aggressive and deprived animals. Tamayo and his supporters had always emphasized his indigenous roots, yet in response to his bold, new style, critics intensified their long-held claims that the artist and his art were inherently "primitive." His rising reputation drew the attention of New York artists, including Jackson Pollock, Adolph Gottlieb, and Mark Rothko, who, taking their cue from contemporary anthropology and psychology, also turned to ancient myths and to Native American art to express the terror of their
momentous times. |