Tamayo, Rufino, 1899-1991, Mexican painter, b. Oaxaca. Considered one of the leading Mexican artists of the 20th cent., Tamayo first gained his reputation in the United States and in Europe before he was acclaimed in his native land. Less interested than Rivera or Siqueiros in an art of social message, Tamayo concentrated more on the formal and decorative elements of painting. Strong influences from cubism and fauvism are apparent in Tamayo's work, as well as elements from Mexican folklore. Characteristic examples are Women of Tehuantepec (1939; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo), and his murals at Smith College, Northampton, Mass. (1943), which are brilliantly colored and whimsically drawn. His work of the 1950s produced a powerful strain of abstract expressionism.

(born Aug. 26, 1899/1900, Oaxaca, Mex.—died June 24, 1991, Mexico City) Mexican painter and graphic artist. He studied at Mexico City's School of Fine Arts and then taught at the National Museum of Archaeology (1921–26). He preferred easel painting to the monumental proportions and political rhetoric of José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. His distinctive style blended Cubism and Surrealism with Mexican folk-art subjects involving semiabstract figures, still lifes, and animals in vibrant colours. From 1936 he lived principally in New York City. In 1950 an exhibition at the Venice Biennale brought him international recognition. He designed murals for Mexico City's Palace of Fine Arts (1952–53) and UNESCO's Paris headquarters (1958). In 1974 he donated his collection of pre-Hispanic art to his native Oaxaca.

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