Dos amantes contemplando la luna

Though painted during the same period as Pájaro agresivo, (Lot 11), Dos amantes contemplando la luna was executed in a decidedly different frame of mind. Both paintings share an unusually subdued palate, delicately applied paint, a sense of movement, and a solitary moon in the company of the schematized human figure. But in Dos amantes fear has been replaced by a magnetic mysticism. In the painting the figures have a much fuller quality. The lovers are voluptuous, sculptural with rounded, weighty bases that firmly anchor them to the earth while their arms reach up to embrace the hangnail moon, a sliver of desirable light hovering above. Rather than fleeing the sky the two lovers silently tremble in the still night air thick with the supernatural, worshipping love and the moon. Like Músicas dormidas the painting reveals the quiet joy of sharing. Here Tamayo is at his most expressive. Both lyrical and romantic Dos amantes contemplando la luna resonates with intimacy and a serene delicacy.