Rufino Tamayo
Self-Portrait (Autorretrato)1968

Not on view

Horizontal abstract oil painting with a handprint, striped rectangle, stylized vase, and floral forms arranged in overlapping planes of blue, purple, yellow, and green

Artist or Maker: Rufino Tamayo
Mexico, 1899-1991
Title: Self-Portrait (Autorretrato)
Date Made: 1968
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 31 3/4 × 39 1/4 in. (80.6 × 99.7 cm)
Credit Line: The Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art
Accession Number: AC1997.LWN.48
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: In this painting, Rufino Tamayo pushes the limits of representation and self-identification. The artist painted few self-portraits over his long career, although scholars have identified several works in which there are suggestions that Tamayo may have included depictions of himself. His earliest painted self- portraits, executed in 1927 and 1931, are closely cropped to his face, with the young painter staring out directly at the viewer. In this later self-portrait Tamayo has reduced the individualizing features of the subject. The artist represents himself only with his hand, one of his primary tools as an artist. To the right, a keyhole outline perhaps invokes a female presence. Here, Tamayo re-envisions the self-portrait through the use of color and simplified forms.

For more information see the catalogue entry by Rachel Kaplan in Rufino Tamayo: The Essential Figure, 2019, pp. 38–39.
Provenance: Bernard and Edith Lewin, Rancho Mirage, California; LACMA, 1997.
Selected Bibliography: Kaplan, Rachel. Rufino Tamayo: The Essential Figure. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2019.
Copyright: Art © Tamayo Heirs/ Mexico/ Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

Rufino Tamayo
Self-Portrait (Autorretrato)1968

Not on view

Artist or Maker: Rufino Tamayo
Mexico, 1899-1991
Title: Self-Portrait (Autorretrato)
Date Made: 1968
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 31 3/4 × 39 1/4 in. (80.6 × 99.7 cm)
Credit Line: The Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art
Accession Number: AC1997.LWN.48
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: In this painting, Rufino Tamayo pushes the limits of representation and self-identification. The artist painted few self-portraits over his long career, although scholars have identified several works in which there are suggestions that Tamayo may have included depictions of himself. His earliest painted self- portraits, executed in 1927 and 1931, are closely cropped to his face, with the young painter staring out directly at the viewer. In this later self-portrait Tamayo has reduced the individualizing features of the subject. The artist represents himself only with his hand, one of his primary tools as an artist. To the right, a keyhole outline perhaps invokes a female presence. Here, Tamayo re-envisions the self-portrait through the use of color and simplified forms.

For more information see the catalogue entry by Rachel Kaplan in Rufino Tamayo: The Essential Figure, 2019, pp. 38–39.
Provenance: Bernard and Edith Lewin, Rancho Mirage, California; LACMA, 1997.
Selected Bibliography: Kaplan, Rachel. Rufino Tamayo: The Essential Figure. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2019.