See The Work Of A Mexican Modern Art Master At The LA County Fair

When we think of the annual L.A. County Fair, which kicks off this Friday, it’s often things like funnel cakes, carnival rides and animal exhibits that come to mind — all good things. But for the second year, the fair will also host an exhibit of fine art.

The featured artist this year is the famed Mexican 20th century modernist Rufino Tamayo, who is best known for his paintings and murals but also produced printed works, some of which will be on display in the exhibit.

Tamayo, who was of Zapotec ancestry, was born in Oaxaca in 1899. His art combined Mexican folk themes and pre-Columbian influences with European modernism; among other things, he was also an innovator of the textured printmaking technique known as Mixografía. He spent several years living in New York, as well as in Paris, before returning to spend the rest of his life in Mexico, where he died in 1991 in Mexico City. A contemporary art museum there bears his name.

He also did some work in Los Angeles, where his legacy is honored at an iconic local restaurant that bears his name as well. Among the Tamayo works the county fair will exhibit is his lithograph Hombre Transparente (Transparent Man), produced for a fellowship at a lithography workshop in Los Angeles in 1964.

Rufino Tamayo drawing on the lithographic stone for "Two Personages Attacked by Dogs" (Dos personajes atacados por perros) at the Taller de Gráfica Mexicana in 1982.

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photo © Shaye Remba, courtesy of Mixografia®

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Los Angeles County Museum of Art

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Also featured will be Dos Personajes Atacados Por Perros (Two Personages Attacked by Dogs), a large Mixografía piece inspired by ancient Mexican sculpture that was once called the “largest mural ever printed” and which made its Los Angeles debut in 1983.

The exhibit is curated by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which has a collection of Tamayo’s work, and will be displayed at the Millard Sheets Art Center within the fair.

L.A. County Fair spokesperson Renee Hernandez said in an email that highlighting the work of a Mexican modern art master at the fair made sense — more than half of the fairgoers are Latino, she said.

“I believe the Tamayo exhibition is going to be really special for our guests, in particular our Latino guests,” she said, adding that many L.A. County fairgoers come from San Bernardino County, a long way from LACMA.

“Many of them do not get the opportunity to make it out to Los Angeles to visit museums like LACMA,” she said. “Having a LACMA exhibition here at the fair provides them the chance to see such artists as Tamayo, and connect them to art.”

"The Personage (El personaje)", a 1975 lithograph by famed Mexican modernist Rufino Tamayo.

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photo © Museum Associates/LACMA

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Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of the Graphic Arts Council

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Rachel Kaplan, LACMA’s associate curator for Latin American Art, said in an email that “Tamayo strove to create art that was both Mexican and universal, which we hope will resonate with fairgoers attending the exhibition.”