“Las sandías de Tamayo” (Rufino Tamayo’s watermelons) is an exhibit featuring 33 sculptures created in the shape of the popular fruit in homage to the famous Oaxacan artist who died in 1991 at the age of 92.
The open-air show will be up in the Plaza Bicentenario of the University Cultural Center (Centro Cultural Universitario), located to the rear of the Jalisco State Library on the northern city beltway (periferico), through October.
The pieces were all created by Oaxacan-based artists, including some former students of Tamayo, for whom the sandia (watermelon) was a recurring theme. (One reason may be that, following his mother’s death, Tamayo worked at his aunt’s fruit stall in Mexico City’s Merced market.) Many of Tamayo’s original works have become highly sought after in recent years. One, titled simply “Sandías,” sold for $US4 million at Christie’s in New York in 2016.
Tamayo’s legacy is represented by a massive volume of graphic works produced between 1925 and 1991, including woodcuts, lithographs, etchings and “Mixografia” prints (a technique is a unique fine art printing process that allows for the production of prints with three-dimensional textures). Tamayo is universally considered one of Mexico’s most important contemporary artists.