Day and Night (painting)
| Spanish: El día y la noche | |
| Artist | Rufino Tamayo |
|---|---|
| Year | 1954 [1] |
| Medium | Vinylite on canvas mounted on particleboard |
| Dimensions | 207.4 cm × 1190 cm (81.7 in × 470 in) |
| Location | Museo Soumaya, Mexico City |
Day and Night (Spanish: Día y noche) is a mural by Rufino Tamayo, executed in Vinylite on canvas and mounted on particleboard. As well as Still Life, it was originally produced for the perfumes and pharmacy section of the Sanborns store on Lafragua Street in Mexico City.[2] Since 2011 it has been conserved in the lobby of the Museo Soumaya.
Description
Tamayo executed the work in 1954, employing the same technique used for the other murals in the Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts), The Birth of Our Nationality and Mexico of Today. The mural contains abstract elements associated with the cosmos and with Mesoamerican architecture, with chromatic contrasts of red and black [2] The work reflects Tamayo’s interest in space during the 1950s, as well as a growing involvement with Mexican history. It bears comparison with other Tamayo works such as Man Contemplating the Firmament and The Astronomer.[2]
During an inaugural visit to the mural, Tamayo told the poet Carlos Pellicer that the original title was to be “Day and Night over the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon,” to which Pellicer replied that it seemed the poet was Tamayo.[3]
On the occasion of the celebrations of seventy years of artistic production by Tamayo, the mural was taken from its original setting and exhibited in the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City before travelling to Madrid, Moscow, and Oslo. It was then removed from the Sanborns on Lafragua, on the recommendation of art critic Raquel Tibol.[4] It was restored to its original brilliance and moved to the Museo Soumaya at Plaza Loreto in 1994 and then to Plaza Carso in 2011.
References
- ↑ López Velarde Estrada, Mónica (2015). Museo Soumaya, ed. Museo Soumaya, catalog (in Spanish). II. Fundación Carlos Slim. pp. 552–553. ISBN 9786077805137.
- 1 2 3 López Velarde Estrada, Mónica (2014). "Sandías, soles y lunes. Los Tamayos en el Museo Soumaya" [Watermelons, suns and moons. Tamayo at the Museo Soumaya]. February.
- ↑ MacMasters, Merry (October 8, 2003). "Murales privados tienen un sitio en la memoria colectiva" [Private murals have a place in our collective memory]. La Jornada (México) (in Spanish). Retrieved June 8, 2014.
- ↑ MacMasters, Merry (October 9, 2003). "Tibol recomendó remover los murales de Tamayo del Sanborns Lafragua" [Tibol recommended to remove Tamayo's murals from Lafragua]. La Jornada (México) (in Spanish). Retrieved June 8, 2014.
Bibliography
Rufino Tamayo, MALERIES OG GRAFIKK, Oslo, 1989-1990