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Lot Essay
In 1949, while residing in Paris, Tamayo declared to the press: "painting is becoming more and more intellectual. This is dangerous. I believe we must be more instinctual. Art should be felt more with the heart than with the spirit".
In an era when international art movements became oriented toward purist ideals, Rufino Tamayo remained devoted to the pictorial narration of the human experience. Within this narration so fervently pursued throughout his career, few are the occasions when we are presented with such an intimate, familial scene. Deeply respectful to the unique bond between mother and child, the present lot may be interpreted as a tribute to the cyclical rebirth of humanity. Painted in 1949, Madre Feliz attests to a period of post-war rejuvenation where Tamayos' awe of the universe crystallizes and eventually replaces the restless paintings of just a few years earlier.
It has been noted that: "in the most ancient cultures humor is related to that smiling knowledge of the world". In paintings such as Madre feliz, this "smiling knowledge" goes beyond Tamayo's noted Mexicaness and instead becomes a shared condition - a universal quality. For the Oaxacan painter, humor was the most effective cross-cultural medium through which to express the same joyous experience. As the ultimate ambassador of color and form, Tamayo explored, perhaps more than any other Mexican artist of his time, the immense power of chromatic variations for conveying emotion. In Madre feliz, these gradations of yellows and crimson shades have been so consummately achieved that the effect is one of immediate infinite warmth, the kind of warmth that can only come from the heart.
In an era when international art movements became oriented toward purist ideals, Rufino Tamayo remained devoted to the pictorial narration of the human experience. Within this narration so fervently pursued throughout his career, few are the occasions when we are presented with such an intimate, familial scene. Deeply respectful to the unique bond between mother and child, the present lot may be interpreted as a tribute to the cyclical rebirth of humanity. Painted in 1949, Madre Feliz attests to a period of post-war rejuvenation where Tamayos' awe of the universe crystallizes and eventually replaces the restless paintings of just a few years earlier.
It has been noted that: "in the most ancient cultures humor is related to that smiling knowledge of the world". In paintings such as Madre feliz, this "smiling knowledge" goes beyond Tamayo's noted Mexicaness and instead becomes a shared condition - a universal quality. For the Oaxacan painter, humor was the most effective cross-cultural medium through which to express the same joyous experience. As the ultimate ambassador of color and form, Tamayo explored, perhaps more than any other Mexican artist of his time, the immense power of chromatic variations for conveying emotion. In Madre feliz, these gradations of yellows and crimson shades have been so consummately achieved that the effect is one of immediate infinite warmth, the kind of warmth that can only come from the heart.