Museo de Arte Prehispánico Rufino Tamayo

On January 29th, 1974, the Museo de Arte Prehispánico Rufino Tamayo was inaugurated after Oaxacan painter Rufino Tamayo restored this handsome colonial house (located at Morelos 503 between Porfirio Diaz and Tinoco y Palacios ) and installed his pre-Columbian art collection.

Tamayo began collecting in 1948 on a trip by donkey around the State of Veracruz, where he saw ancient Olmec idols lying in streams and little girls dressing them up like dolls. He came back with six crates of immensely valuable pieces purchased for 20 to 100 pesos. Open daily except Tuesday from 10 am to 2 pm and 4 pm to 7 pm; Sunday from 10 am to 3 pm.

This exhibition includes works, articles and objects of the Gulf coastal cultures such as the Olmec, Totonac and Huasteca, in the Pacific states of Michoacan, Jalisco, Colima, Nayarit; groups in western Mexico as the Altiplano, Teotihuacan, Toltec and Aztec; also those from the south the Zapotec and Mixtec; and in southeastern Mexico articles belonging to the Maya.

The museum has 5 showrooms and houses approximately 1059 archaeological pieces, not all displayed. Each room is painted with different colors reflecting on the artistic taste of Tamayo.  The collections are not ordered according to their culture, rather classified them in different rooms generally according to their chronology. 

One of the purposes expressed by Rufino Tamayo for donating collection, was to prevent illegal trafficking and export of the same, at the same time and share this legacy with the people of Oaxaca and the general public.  Please visit my Picasa web album to view more of the collection.

Galeria Arte de Oaxaca

The historic center of Oaxaca is one of the most beautiful in Mexico and is a renowned tourist destination. Still beauty and historical value preserved only for tourism would be of little value if there were no one to transform the tradition and beauty in a living cultural awareness. One such place is the Galeria Arte de Oaxaca. Galeria Arte de Oaxaca was founded in 1987 with the help of famous Ocotlan artist Rodolfo Morales to promote young Oaxacan artists. Prominent among the artists of Oaxaca are Rufino Tamayo, Rodolfo Morales, Francisco Toledo, Filemon Santiago, Eddie Martinez, Cecilio Sanchez, Abelardo Lopez, Fernando Olivera, Rolando Rojas, Enrique Flores, and Amador Montes. For more than twenty years, Galeria Arte de Oaxaca has brought to light different expressions of the art of Oaxaca. Currently the Galeria Arte de Oaxaca is housed in an eighteenth century building. In 1996 the artist, Rodolfo Morales, purchased the house as the first property of the cultural foundation that bears his name specifically to house the Galeria Arte de Oaxaca. Cultural Foundation Rodolfo Morales AC, is an institution dedicated to the rescue of architectural and cultural heritage of the central valleys of Oaxaca, the restoration of historical monuments, the promotion of popular art, music and performing arts and the promotion of education of children and youth in the Ocotlán district of Oaxaca, and the preservation of local traditions.

Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991) was Zapotecan born in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. He moved to México City to attend the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plasticas "San Carlos." Tamayo worked as a draftsman at the Museo Nacional de Arqueologia where he was exposed to the cultural wealth of pre-Colombian México. While his contemporaries were advocating art with a political message, Tamayo's work focused on plastic forms integrated with a masterful use of colors and textures. Tamayo devoted himself to creating an identity in his work, expressing what he believed was the traditional Mexico.

Rodolfo Morales (1925-2001) was a Mexican surrealist painter, who incorporated elements of magic realism into his work and is known for his brightly colored surrealistic dream-like canvases and collages often featuring Mexican women in village settings. He was notable for his restoration of historic buildings in Ocotlán. Morales shared mainly through his dedication to the study, preservation and enhancement of the traditional heritage of the region of Oaxaca.

Francisco Toledo, born in 1947, has the same attitude, the same spirit, the same concern to establish a continuum between past and present. He has also founded institutions for the recovery of cultural heritage. Considered one of the best living artists in Mexico, Toledo is a master printmaker, draftsman, painter, sculptor and ceramist. His art reflects a deep appreciation for the aesthetics of nature, particularly animals that are not conventionally associated with beauty (bats, iguanas, frogs, insects). The view of Toledo says the world of humans and animals are one with nature. His art is cut heavily with expressionism, tinged with black humor.

For more photos click here.