"If I could express with a single word what it is that distinguishes Tamayo from other painters of our age, I would say, without a moment's hesitation: sun. For the sun is in all his pictures, whether we see it or not; night itself is for Tamayo simply the sun carbonized."
—Octavio Paz [1]
Widely regarded as one of the most important painters from Mexico, Rufino Tamayo came of age in his native country’s post-revolutionary context. At a time when “the big three”—Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros—were cultivating a realistic aesthetic saturated in leftist politics, Tamayo questioned their representation of Mexican identity and its founding myths. Wary of the insularity of their approach that shunned modern art as elitist and anti-proletariat, Tamayo remained open to larger art world trends and aspired to a universal artistic language. While the muralists painted frescoes across the country and the United States, Tamayo, though himself an accomplished muralist, embraced the easel in the face of much condemnation. Reflecting on this time in 1981, Tamayo remembered, “I had difficulties with the muralists, to the point that they accused me of being a traitor to my country for not following their ways of thinking. But my only commitment is to painting. That doesn't mean I don't have personal political positions. But those positions aren't reflected in my work. My work is painting.”