This Mexican artist was born in Oaxaca on August 26, at the turn of the 19th century in 1899. Losing his mother at a young age, Tamayo went to live in Mexico City in 1911 where he grew up with an aunt. Working at a fruit stand to make a living and taking classes at San Carlos Academy, he soon began exploring with paintings, and in 1921, was designated as head of the Ethnographic Painting Department of the National Museum of Archaeology.

In 1925 he rented a studio where he could begin working seriously with his art and a year later he presented his first exhibition and moved to New York, returning a few years later to teach at the School of Fine Arts in Mexico. He worked extensively in Mexico and also in the United States, exhibiting his works of art in cities such as San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Cincinnati. He worked at the Brooklyn Museum Art School and painted the mural at the Hillyer Art Library of Northampton, Massachusetts, U.S.A and also went to Europe, presenting Works in Italy, France and Brussels and catching the attention of the critics.

Tamayo lived a very long life and finally passed away in 1991. An biographic movie on Tamayo’s life was made in 1970 and again in 1973. This renowned Mexican artists, known form his great murals has received many prestigious awards and prizes from prominent art institutes and other organizations, such as the 1964 National Arts Award, the Colouste Gulbekian Award from the Institute of Arts of Paris (1969), the Legion of Honor of France (1970), Predliet Son of the Government of Oaxaca, Mexico (1972), among several others.

Works by Rufino Tamayo:

• Two Women at the Window (Dos mujeres en la ventana)
• Landscape with rocks (Paisaje con rocas)
• Clock and Telephone (Reloj y teléfono)
• The Phonograph (El fonógrafo)
• Two Mexican Girls (Dos niñas mexicanas)
• A Couple with a Cactus (Pareja con maguey)