1952.39 Rufino Tamayo, Watermelons, date unknown

Likely one of Rufino Tamayo’s first Mixografia prints, this chromolithographic still life is anything but static. A technique Tamayo developed in the late 1930s when he found traditional methods of etching and lithography boring, Mixografia abandoned the usual metal plates or smoothed stones on which printmakers drew their designs. Instead, Tamayo cut his design into a beeswax plate that was then used as a mold to create the three-dimensional metal relief that would serve as the matrix for the final impression.

 

One of his many meditations on fruit, this print recalls the artist’s childhood vocation as a fruit vendor in Mexico City. The vibrant and saturated colors are exaggerated by Tamayo’s innovative technique, which reproduces the watermelons in high-relief onto paper.

Erin Piñon, Tower Gallery: Latin American Art, Label text, 2017.

Tamayo_Rufino: ULAN: 500024331

Mexico (nation): TGN: 7005560

Oaxaca (state/Mexico): TGN: 7005591

Mexico City (Mexico): TGN: 7007227

color lithographs: AAT: 300041383

lithographs (planographic prints): AAT: 300041379

lithography: AAT: 300053271

chromolithographs: AAT: 300041384

chromolithography: AAT: 300053272

Mixografia (R) (embossed prints): AAT: 300265654

embossing (technique): AAT: 300053826

prints (visual works): AAT: 300041273

works on paper: AAT: 300189621

still life: AAT: 300015638

beeswax: AAT: 300014588

plate (material): AAT: 300011041

molds (shaping tools): AAT: 300024814

three-dimensional: AAT: 300010331

metal: AAT: 300010900

relief (sculpture techniques): AAT: 300053622

relief printing: AAT: 300053285

impressions (prints): AAT: 300178549

meditation: AAT: 300264363

fruit (plant components): AAT: 300011868

youth (life stages): AAT: 300305226

occupations (livelihoods): AAT: 300263369

street vendor: AAT: 300247690

vendors (people in commerce and business): AAT: 300150791

color (perceived attribute): AAT: 300056130

melon (fruit): AAT: 300266444

watermelons (pepo / Citrullus lanatus): DMA

pepo (berry / fleshy fruit): AAT: 300266443

seeds (plant components): AAT: 300400469

high reliefs (sculpture): 300184782

paper (fiber product): AAT: 300014109

cherry (plant): AAT: 300375306

red (color): AAT: 300126225

From 1952: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas Art Association Purchase [1], [2]

[1] The main source for this provenance was existing information in TMS (in Dallas Museum of Art Digital Collections Records Object Files). Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.  

[2] The Dallas Art Association is the predecessor to the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. The name was abandoned in 1970. Works from this collection were transferred to the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.