History of the Museum
Since the end of the 70s, Rufino Tamayo (Oaxaca, 1899 – Mexico, D.F. 1991) began to acquire works to form a collection of contemporary international art. With the goal of bringing the Mexican public together with twentieth century art, the artist bequeathed this collection to create the Museo Tamayo. Tamayo worked closely with the architects Abraham Zabludovsky and Teodoro González de León on the design and construction of the museum. From the beginning the building was considered another piece in the collection of contemporary art.
On May 29, 1981, this cultural space was inaugurated with the sponsorship of the Alfa Group and the Televisa Cultural Foundation. Five years later, the museum became part of the national patrimony under the administration of the National Institute of Fine Arts (INBA), with a re-inauguration taking place on September 9, 1986. In 1989, with the goal of supporting the museum in its optimal operation, Olga and Rufino Tamayo created the foundation that carries their names: the Olga and Rufino Tamayo Foundation.
The vocation of contemporaneity and openness to the world, which encouraged Tamayo, remain in force in this institution in its commitment to maintaining the presence of the museum in the panorama of international contemporary art.
The Direction of the Museum over the Years
With the collection of twentieth century works of art brought together and generously donated by Rufino and Olga Tamayo to Mexico, the Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo was inaugurated on May 29, 1981. Under the sponsorship of the Alfa Group and the Televisa Cultural Foundation, the museum became the first in Mexico whose private initiative began construction and intended to finance and operate the museum. The first museum director was Fernando Gamboa. After a few weeks at the head of the museum, he left his place to Alberto Raurell, who tragically passed away after directing the institution for only a few months.
It was the third director, Robert Litman, who began a significant chapter for the museum. Together with his curatorial team and staff, including Magda Carranza de Akle, a current member of the Board of Trustees of the Olga and Rufino Tamayo Foundation, Litman filled the museum with exhibitions of varied themes that encompassed a vision of Mexican culture, such as artistic expressions that included everything from artisan objects – such as Mexican textiles and Japanese packaging – to Italian vanguard design. Litman had David Hockney dialogue with Diego Rivera and Ángel Zárraga dialogue with Robert Rauchenberg. At the end of these years, Tamayo believed that this program had drifted from the fundamental objective with which the museum had been founded: to bring the Mexican public closer to the collection of contemporary international art that he, together with his wife Olga, had formed over many years.
As a result, Tamayo carried out a series of talks with the federal government, which for their part asked Televisa to allow the Museo Tamayo to be administered by the National Institute of Fine Arts (INBA). With a re-inauguration on September 9, 1986, the museum became part of the International Network of Museums of INBA. In this new stage, Cristina Gálvez Guzzy was the first director. In her more than twelve years at the museum, she introduced the works of the collection and with the participation of Tamayo himself, established an ambitious program of temporary exhibitions. Furthermore, in 1987, Gálvez carried out a national homage to Tamayo to commemorate his 70 years as a creator. The exhibition occupied all the galleries of the Museo Tamayo, as well as the Museum of the Palace of Fine Arts (el Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes). With more than 625 works −including easel paintings, murals on canvas, drawings and graphic works from Europe, Asia, South America and the United States− it was the greatest number of works of the artist that have ever been presented.
Afterward, the museum was directed by María Teresa Márquez. Her direction stood out for her inclusion of significant Mexican artists in the program of exhibitions, such as Juan Soriano, who, in his youth broke new ground in Mexican art with his poetic and carefree painting, as well as Gabriel Orozco, a contemporary artist recognized at an international level. Thus, an important initiative of María Teresa Márquez was the creation of the so-called Gallery 7, curated by Taiyana Pimentel, which introduced the works of young artists such as Miguel Calderón and Minerva Cuevas, putting the museum at the head of vanguard programs.
In 2000 the museum was under the leadership of Osvaldo Sánchez. During his time at the museum, he grew and consolidated a curatorial team and presented three shows that profiled the programmatic content of the museum in its next phase, in addition to working with the permanent collection and the work of Rufino Tamayo. He modernized the facilities, including the galleries of the museum, and began a process of strengthening the Olga and Rufino Tamayo Foundation.
In 2002 Ramiro Martínez assumed direction of the museum. He established a program of critical temporary exhibitions that sought a balance between the presentation of the work of international, current artists –such as Douglas Gordon, Thomas Ruff, Luc Tuymans, Jeff Wall, among others– and the artistic offerings of outstanding representatives from the 1970s and 80s, also from all over the world.
In June of 2009 Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy became the director.
