Artwork Page for Woman and Bird

Details / Information for Woman and Bird

Woman and Bird

1944

Rufino Tamayo

(Mexican, 1899–1991)
Culture
Mexico, 20th century
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
Framed: 123.2 x 102.9 x 6.2 cm (48 1/2 x 40 1/2 x 2 7/16 in.); Unframed: 106.5 x 86 cm (41 15/16 x 33 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr. 1950.583
Copyright
© Tamayo Heirs / Mexico / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
225 German Expressionism & Surrealism
Print
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Did You Know?

At the age of 17, while studying business management, Tamayo secretly studied drawing at night.

Description

Rufino Tamayo was born in Oaxaca, Mexico. After the death of his parents, who were Zapotec—Indigenous people of the Mexican state of Oaxaca—he moved to Mexico City to live with an aunt. In his art, he portrayed modern Mexican subjects through a mixture of international avant-garde styles and visual references to his own culture. In Zapotec culture, birds are considered intelligent, even wise creatures. Here, a woman looks up at a caged bird, her hands raised as if in amazement. Tamayo conceived of life and art as a universal heartbeat: “Art, like culture, is international. It’s the result of many parts to which we add our own tone.”
Vertically oriented, stylized oil painting with muted colors depicting a woman with grey-blue skin tone holding up her arms and tossing her head back to look up at a bird hung in a cage above her. She somewhat merges with the grey-green wall behind her while the red, rectangular cage and light-blue bird contrast. She has angular limbs and a round head as we can see up her grey-pink nostrils.

Woman and Bird

1944

Rufino Tamayo

(Mexican, 1899–1991)
Mexico, 20th century

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