Sotheby’s – Latin American Art

November 1st, 2011 by

The November 2011 Latin American Sale will highlight a retrospective selection of works by the great Mexican painter Rufino Tamayo and the Venezuelan Kinetic artist Jesús Rafael Soto.

The cover lot, Tamayo’s vibrant Watermelon Slices, 1950, headlines the selection of this artist’s work in the sale. Watermelon Slices epitomizes one of Tamayo’s most recognized themes, which often served as a vehicle for an unparalleled use of color from this master of pigment. The reds, oranges, pinks and purples pulse throughout the composition giving the painting a mesmerizing glow. This boldness of color and the subsequent abstraction of figures is seen in the early 1928 Frutero y Dominó to the 1951 Tres personajes, and El Tragafuego, 1955.