Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991) was born in Oaxaca, Mexico and later moved to Mexico City to attend the Escula Nacional de Artes Plasticas San Carlos. After completing his studies, Tamayo worked as a draftsman at the Museo Nacional de Arqueologia, where he was exposed to, and inspired by, the artifacts of pre-Colombian Mexico. This time helped influence the subject matter of Tamayo’s later works; while his contemporaries were trying to create pieces with a political message, Tamayo ached to capture “old Mexico” in his works.

Inspired by Cubism, Impressionism, and Fauvism, Tamayo created figurative abstraction pieces with surrealist nuances. Tamayo also helped develop the “Mixografia” technique to obtain colored and textured three-dimensional print on handmade paper. Tamayo quickly became known as one of the best known Latin American artists, and his work has been displayed at the Palacio Nacional de Bellas Artes, México, The Philips Collection in Washington, The Guggenheim Museum in New York, The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid as well as important art galleries throughout the world.