Woman with a Bird Cage

Woman with a Bird Cage combines Rufino Tamayo’s deep appreciation of ancient Mesoamerican art with his interest in Cubism, the 20th-century abstract art movement created by artists Pablo Picasso and George Braque. The influence of Cubism is apparent in the woman’s body, which Tamayo fractured into planes of color. Yet her distinctive elongated ear, large nose, open mouth, and the other aspects of her form reflect the Indigenous artist’s study of West Mexican ceramic sculptures (similar examples of which are on view in Gallery 136), which he collected enthusiastically. The synthesis of the two styles suggests his desire to introduce personal aspects of his Zapotec identity into modernist painting.