LACMA

Catching Butterflies was painted by Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo about seventy years ago. The painting shows a young girl running after a small group of butterflies. A traditional Mexican adobe house is in the background. Tamayo used subdued colors that give the image a dreamlike quality. Take a close look at the image. What parts seem real? What areas seem more like a dream?

Tamayo was a Zapotec Indian born in Oaxaca, Mexico in 1899. While working at the Archaeological Museum in Mexico City he was introduced to Mexican folk art. Tamayo came to believe that pre-Columbian and folk art were the truest expressions of Mexican culture. He collected pre-Columbian art and the objects in his collection often inspired his own works of art. The colors in his paintings also reflect the colors of the skies, earth, and landscapes of Mexico. They are also similar to the dyes used in Mexican clothing at the time. What colors did Tamayo use in this painting? What do they remind you of? Where else have you seen these colors?

Around the time this painting was made, many artists in Mexico painted murals. A mural is a painting that is made on a wall and may be large in scale. Artists including Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and José Clemente Orozco painted grand murals that commented on Mexican society and culture in a politically charged way. Tamayo, however, believed that art should be more about beauty than about political ideas.

You can see this painting in the Latin American art galleries on the third floor of the Art of the Americas Building at LACMA.

Search Collections Online to see more works of art by Rufino Tamayo.