page_title: Rufino Tamayo
section_title: Style
hierarchical_section_title: Rufino Tamayo / Style
caption_attribution_description: English: "Nacimiento de nuestra nacionalidad" by Rufino Tamayo on the first floor of the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.Español: "Nacimiento de nuestra nacionalidad" de Rufino Tamayo en el primer piso del Palacio de Bellas Artes en la Ciudad de México.
context_page_description: Rufino del Carmen Arellanes Tamayo was a Mexican painter of Zapotec heritage, born in Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico. Tamayo was active in the mid-20th century in Mexico and New York, painting figurative abstraction with surrealist influences.
context_section_description: Tamayo explained his approach to Paul Westheim as follows: "As the number of colors we use decreases, the wealth of possibilities increases". Tamayo favored using few colors rather than many; he asserted that fewer colors in a painting gave the art greater force and meaning. Tamayo's unique color choices are evident in the painting Tres personajes cantando (Three singers), 1981. In this painting, Tamayo employs pure colors such as red and purple; his restraint in the choice of color here confirms his belief that fewer colors, far from limiting the painting, actually enlarge the composition's possibilities. With that being said, Octavio Paz, author of the book Rufino Tamayo, argues that, "Time and again we have been told that Tamayo is a great colourist; but it should be added that this richness of colour is the result of sobriety". By being pure or, as Paz explained, sober with his color choice, Tamayo's paintings were enriched, not impoverished.
  If I could express with a single word what it is that distinguishes Tamayo from other painters, I would say without a moment's hesitation: Sun. For the sun is in all his pictures, whether we see it or not.
  — Nobel Prize-winning poet Octavio Paz
caption: Nacimiento de nuestra nacionalidad by Rufino Tamayo on the first floor of the Palacio de Bellas Artes
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