Rufino Tamayo (Mexican, 1899-1991) Women of Tehuantepec, 1939 Oil on canvas, 33 7/8 x 57 1/8" Room of Contemporary Art Fund, 1941

Close your eyes and think of a wonderful place that you have been. Where are you? Remember the sounds, the smells, the people, and the sights. Rufino Tamayo used memories when he created this painting-memories of helping his aunt at her fruit stand in the marketplace when he was a boy. Tamayo was from Mexico, the United States's neighbor to the south. The town in the title, Tehuantepec, is in the southern part of the country (check it out in the atlas). Try to pronounce it (tay-hwon-tay-peck). The climate is warm and sunny, and the colors bright and cheerful. Tamayo included the warm sun in his painting, along with the bright colors of the fruits and flowers, buildings, and costumes of the women. We can imagine the smell of the ripe fruit and beautiful flowers, and the sounds of voices talking to friends and neighbors. What do you think the man in the right foreground is saying to the women as he offers them flowers?

This is not the way other famous Mexican artists were painting at the time. They created large scenes about politics and struggle, and believed that all other Mexican artists should paint the same way. Tamayo, on the other hand, believed that the most important thing in art was freedom, and that there are as many different ways of painting as there are artists.