Un sólo hombre con coraje vale por todos (A Man With Courage Makes a Majority)

In collaboration with master printer Luis Remba, founder of Taller de Gráfica Mexicana, Tamayo invented "mixografía", a bas-relief printing process, in the early 1970s. The technique begins with direct drawing into a soft, wax mold, which is then transferred to a copper plate; the image is printed on a thick cotton pulp able to preserve the three-dimensionality and surface detail of the plate. "Un sólo hombre con coraje vale por todos" demonstrates the textural richness attained by "mixografía", its central protagonist defined in tonally monochromatic, linear relief across the dense paper, its surface subtly pitted and scarred. With one arm raised and the other drawn bravely across his chest, he epitomizes the resilience and triumph of man, Tamayo’s enduring and archetypal subject. “I am interested in Man,” he declared. “Man is my subject, Man who is the creator of all scientific and technological wonders. To me that is the most important thing in existence.”1

1 Rufino Tamayo, “A Commentary by the Artist,” Tamayo, exh. cat. (Phoenix: Phoenix Art Museum, 1968), 4.

This text was created in collaboration with the University of Maryland Department of Art History & Archaeology and written by Patricia Ortega-Miranda.