拍品专文
Due to the confusion of titles, this painting has also been known as Hombre mirando los aviones. It is one of the paintings that Tamayo dedicated, in the decades of the 40s and 50s, to the aerial theme. This series clearly manifested the exhaltation that Tamayo expressed towards technology and nature. As the title to one of his paintings states, Tamayo was a true Amigo de los pájaros (1944).
Likewise, birds had a significant meaning for Tamayo. They not only represented his fascination with technology, but they were also messengers from the cosmos. Tamayo depicted birds as symbols or elements that 'descend from the skies, as friendly messengers from heaven, who can bring blissful omens or darken the horizon like demons of disaster.' (1) The archetype that is expressed in this composition is precisely the act of the observation of birds who read into the future with a positive and joyful prospect. The man, with his back to the viewer, is completely enthralled with the flight of the birds. He is also depicted in one of Tamayo's characteristic postures, confronting the cosmos or as it has been stated elsewhere by Jaime Moreno Villareal, in a 'threshold' position.(2) This position places the human being on the terrestial, throwing himself towards the universe by extending one of his arms toward the unlimited. The birds flutter around the figure and appear to plunge toward something that the man is holding in his hand. The full composition suggests a state of complete libertation.
Equally liberating is the harmonizing palette in which the painting is rendered. The pink hues are prototypical of the artist's quest for purity in the use of color. Tamayo stated 'a mayor limitación en los colores, mayores posibilidades de riqueza. Es más pictórico extrear de un color todas sus posibilidades que emplear una variedad ilimitada de pigmentos.'(3)
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1. Westheim, P. Rufino Tamayo: una investigación estética, Artes de México, May-June, 1956
2. Pereda, J.C., Los murales de Tamayo, Fundación Olga y Rufino Tamayo, 1995. See Jaime Moreno Villareal's essay El hombre en el umbral.
3. Op. cit., Westheim
Likewise, birds had a significant meaning for Tamayo. They not only represented his fascination with technology, but they were also messengers from the cosmos. Tamayo depicted birds as symbols or elements that 'descend from the skies, as friendly messengers from heaven, who can bring blissful omens or darken the horizon like demons of disaster.' (1) The archetype that is expressed in this composition is precisely the act of the observation of birds who read into the future with a positive and joyful prospect. The man, with his back to the viewer, is completely enthralled with the flight of the birds. He is also depicted in one of Tamayo's characteristic postures, confronting the cosmos or as it has been stated elsewhere by Jaime Moreno Villareal, in a 'threshold' position.(2) This position places the human being on the terrestial, throwing himself towards the universe by extending one of his arms toward the unlimited. The birds flutter around the figure and appear to plunge toward something that the man is holding in his hand. The full composition suggests a state of complete libertation.
Equally liberating is the harmonizing palette in which the painting is rendered. The pink hues are prototypical of the artist's quest for purity in the use of color. Tamayo stated 'a mayor limitación en los colores, mayores posibilidades de riqueza. Es más pictórico extrear de un color todas sus posibilidades que emplear una variedad ilimitada de pigmentos.'(3)
_________________________________
1. Westheim, P. Rufino Tamayo: una investigación estética, Artes de México, May-June, 1956
2. Pereda, J.C., Los murales de Tamayo, Fundación Olga y Rufino Tamayo, 1995. See Jaime Moreno Villareal's essay El hombre en el umbral.
3. Op. cit., Westheim