Fort Worth, TX, April 24, 2024—The Amon Carter Museum of American Art (the Carter) will present a selection of works on paper by Rufino Tamayo in Rufino Tamayo: Innovation and Experimentation. Organized by and drawn exclusively from the holdings of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), this exhibition highlights Tamayo’s engagement with printmaking throughout his career alongside a selection of Mesoamerican sculpture, an important source of inspiration for the artist. Rufino Tamayo: Innovation and Experimentation will be on view at the Carter November 24, 2024, through April 20, 2025.

“We are pleased to present Rufino Tamayo: Innovation and Experimentation during the 125th anniversary year of the birth of Rufino Tamayo, an artist who influenced a variety of American artists from the early 20th century to the present day,” said Andrew J. Walker, Executive Director at the Carter. “Organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, this exhibition highlights the role of a truly exceptional and innovative artist whose work we are honored to have in the Carter’s collection.”

Rufino Tamayo was a leading Mexican artist of the 20th century who achieved international acclaim. Though he was known primarily for his paintings and murals, Tamayo was also deeply interested in experimenting with prints and finding a way to add volume and texture to a traditionally two-dimensional medium. Working between Mexico, Europe, and the United States, Tamayo created a robust body of works on paper, which provided an important avenue for formal and technical innovation.

Spanning over 60 years of his prolific career, Rufino Tamayo: Innovation and Experimentation focuses on Tamayo’s longstanding interest in printmaking as a means of exploring new techniques and furthering artistic experimentation. A unifying thread throughout the exhibition is Tamayo’s depictions of the human figure, which became progressively more abstract over time. In the artworks on view, Tamayo's abstractions of the human figure are highlighted as fertile ground for formal experimentation in his printmaking.

Rufino Tamayo features 20 works on paper by Tamayo–including two watercolors and 18 prints–and five Mesoamerican sculptures, all of which will include bilingual labels. Tamayo actively collected art from the ancient Americas and acquired more than 1,300 Mesoamerican artworks, which now belong to the Museo de Arte Prehispánico de México Rufino Tamayo in Oaxaca. This exhibition will feature five comparable objects from LACMA’s collection, demonstrating the artist’s fascination with Mesoamerican sculptures throughout his long career.

“Rufino Tamayo began his career as a draftsman sketching objects in the collection of the Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Historia y Etnografía in Mexico City. The forms and textures of these Mesoamerican objects continued to influence his art long afterward,” said Michaela Haffner, Assistant Curator of Paintings, Sculpture, and Works on Paper at the Carter. “This exhibition offers a remarkable opportunity to bring Tamayo's prints in conversation with this early source of inspiration, and to highlight the innovations in print which followed.”

The exhibition provides an overview of Tamayo’s print career, beginning with early woodcuts from the 1920s and extending to his large mural-size print Two Personages Attacked by Dogs (1983). The artworks on view in the exhibition highlight his relationship with the Mexican mural movement, his Zapotec heritage, modernism, and his engagement with diverse modes of printmaking. A small selection of Mesoamerican figurines, similar to those that were a source of formal inspiration for Tamayo’s art, will also be featured in the space.

The exhibition features a variety of works on paper including woodcuts, etchings, lithographs, and Mixografía prints (a new mixed process at the time that allowed the artist to introduce volume and texture to his prints) created from the 1920s through the 1980s. Throughout his career, Tamayo created over 350 prints, collaborating with workshops in the United States, Mexico, and Europe as he achieved increasing international acclaim. The artworks on view in the exhibition focus on his exploration of various print processes, leading to his collaboration with the Taller de Gráfica Mexicana in Mexico City and the development of the Mixografía technique. Digital archival photographs and a short video will provide visitors with a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of Tamayo’s Mixografía prints.

Rufino Tamayo: Innovation and Experimentation is organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where it was curated by Rachel Kaplan, associate curator of Latin American art at LACMA.

The Carter’s presentation of the exhibition is supported in part by the IFPDA Foundation and the Alice L. Walton Foundation Temporary Exhibitions Endowment.

_{Images: Rufino Tamayo (1899–1991), Man with Open Arms [The Preacher] (Hombre con brazos abiertos [El predicador]), 1984, Mixografía® print on handmade paper, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art, © 2024 Tamayo Heirs / Mexico / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA; Unknown (Mexico, possibly Tlatilco), Seated Male with Shoulder Scarification (Hombre sentado con escarificación en los hombros), 1200–900 BCE, ceramic, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by Camilla Chandler Frost, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA; Rufino Tamayo (1899–1991), Man with Tall Hat (Hombre con sombrero alto), ca. 1930, watercolor and charcoal on paper, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art, © 2024 Tamayo Heirs / Mexico / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA}

About the Amon Carter Museum of American Art

Located in the heart of Fort Worth’s Cultural District, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art (the Carter) is a dynamic cultural resource that provides unique access and insight into the history and future of American creativity through its expansive exhibitions and programming. The Carter’s preeminent collection includes masterworks by legendary American artists such as Ruth Asawa, Alexander Calder, Frederic Church, Stuart Davis, Robert Duncanson, Thomas Eakins, Georgia O’Keeffe, Jacob Lawrence, and John Singer Sargent, as well as one of the country’s foremost repositories of American photography. In addition to its innovative exhibition program and engagement with artists working today, the Museum’s premier primary research collection and leading conservation program make it a must-see destination for art lovers and scholars of all ages nationwide. Admission is always free. To learn more about the Carter, visit cartermuseum.org.