iMuseo Tamayo Arte ContemporáneoBosque de Chapultepec
Tamayo, Nieto, Toledo. Los años en París
"The Paris Years": Oaxacan artists Rufino Tamayo, Rodolfo Nieto and Francisco Toledo, whose Paris stays fused pre-Hispanic and popular art with the avant-garde.
More in Mexico City
When Rufino Tamayo moved back to Mexico after ten years in Paris, he gave his work tools to Francisco Toledo, a young printmaker from Juchitán. As handovers go, it beats the half-empty garrafón your last flatmate left behind.
This show follows three Oaxacans in Paris: Tamayo from 1950, then Rodolfo Nieto and Toledo, a generation younger. You walk through one room per artist, each in its own colour: greens for Tamayo, blues and purples for Nieto, salmon and orange for Toledo. About 100 paintings, drawings, prints and collages come from 47 lenders, and several have never been shown in Mexico. Letters, books and objects trace their friendships with Paz, Cortázar and Borges.
La Voz de Michoacán's reviewer noted it keeps attention on the works instead of crowding the walls. Labels are sober, mostly confined to the introduction and a photo timeline, so read up beforehand if you want the backstory. It fills Salas 3 and 4 until 15 February 2027; entry is MXN 95, free on Sundays, closed Mondays.
Editor's pick
When Rufino Tamayo left Paris, he handed his tools to the young Francisco Toledo. Tamayo, Rodolfo Nieto and Toledo each get a room in its own colour, about 100 works from 47 lenders. Labels are sparse; read up first.
Look for
Nieto's Zoología mental
Look for the eight paintings of the series in which Nieto fused humans and animals into one bestiary to picture fear, loneliness and existential dread.
La mujer temblorosa
Tamayo's 1949 oil of a human figure worked through abstraction and heavy texture, lent from a private collection and on public view here for the first time.
Toledo's La amazona and Compañero de viaje
Two early pieces from the Paris bestiary where Toledo's people and animals merge, both shown at the museum for the first time.
The Paris friendships
Letters, books and objects that record the three artists' ties to Cortázar, Paz and Borges in mid-century Paris.
Good for
- Cheap Culture
- Nerding Out
- Out-Of-Town Guests
Skip if
You want wall text to guide you: labels are sparse beyond the introduction and timeline.
With kids
Under-13s get in free, and the show's page on the museum site has a section of activities for kids.
Also at Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo
On now nearby
Nearby
Image credits
7
- Tamayo, Nieto, Toledo. Los años en ParísFotos: Gerardo Landa y Eduardo López (GLR Estudio)
- El Códice de AzcatitlanCourtesy of Museo Nacional de Antropología
- Alexandre Estrela. RedSkyFalls: RéplicaCourtesy of Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC)
- Museo Tamayo Arte ContemporáneoJosé Luiz / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Museo de Arte ModernoLuisalvaz / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Museo Nacional de AntropologíaHojarasca.mx / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Museo Nacional de Historia, Castillo de ChapultepecDiana du Vent / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0