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Lot Essay
The ritual use of masks is a tradition inherited from pre-Columbian cultures that has been preserved to our day in Mexican indigenous communities where such traditions are upheld in their most vigorous and purest form. The use of masks in these communities has the power to produce a magic halo and create a different personality for the bearer, allowing him or her to virtually become another being. Masks proved a powerful aesthetic resource for Tamayo during his entire creative career. Many of his paintings show beings that appear to be wearing masks.
Máscara negra shows a character in motion, as if he were executing a ritual dance. The architecture that frames the character exalts and reinforces the cadences in the posture of the dancer and the walls and fragment of the sky that serve as backdrop contain such rich textures that they could be comparable to another celestial landscape by Tamayo. The facial features of the mask the dancer is wearing have been reduced to basic geometrical shapes nonetheless adorned with stars which have the effect of singularizing gestures which accompany a mysterious practice. The nudity of the character also makes reference to handmade pre-Columbian clay statues. The character in his ritual trance would appear to be dematerializing and integrating into a magical dimension, as is evidenced in one of his hands which has changed color and acquired a strange texture with small flickering pink lights.
This is one of Tamayo's paintings that portrays with great beauty the magical nature of man.
Juan Carlos Pereda, Mexico City, 2006
Máscara negra shows a character in motion, as if he were executing a ritual dance. The architecture that frames the character exalts and reinforces the cadences in the posture of the dancer and the walls and fragment of the sky that serve as backdrop contain such rich textures that they could be comparable to another celestial landscape by Tamayo. The facial features of the mask the dancer is wearing have been reduced to basic geometrical shapes nonetheless adorned with stars which have the effect of singularizing gestures which accompany a mysterious practice. The nudity of the character also makes reference to handmade pre-Columbian clay statues. The character in his ritual trance would appear to be dematerializing and integrating into a magical dimension, as is evidenced in one of his hands which has changed color and acquired a strange texture with small flickering pink lights.
This is one of Tamayo's paintings that portrays with great beauty the magical nature of man.
Juan Carlos Pereda, Mexico City, 2006