The Paradoxes of Internationalism (As narrated by the Museo Tamayo Collection). Part II

The exhibition celebrates the 125th anniversary of Rufino Tamayo by exploring his legacy in creating Mexico's first international art museum and collection. Opening in 1981, it established a place where international perspectives can be experienced through art. Highlighting works from the Museo Tamayo collection, this show reveals the contradictions and betrayals of internationalism that have spurred artists—including Tamayo himself—to question the social, political, and cultural constructs through which our notions of the ‘world’ are continuously reconfigured. In his seventies, after living in New York and Paris and traveling extensively, Tamayo reflected on what it is to be an international artist: “It is impossible in this time, when communications are so open, to set out deliberately to make an art which is Mexican, or American, or Chinese, or Russian. I think in terms of universality.”
Presenting a range of works produced during and after the Second World War up to the present day, this story centers on how artists convey an evolution of responses, from a romance with Modernism’s universalizing emancipatory processes—a belief in rupture and progress in anticipation and freedom—to the current disaffection brought on by shared ‘global’ crises such as climate change and migration.
The Paradoxes of Internationalism is a two-part show that engages the Museum collection alongside key loans of artworks by artists who have had exhibitions at Tamayo. Part I was presented from May 27 to October 1st, 2023. Part II presents artworks produced during and after World War II to the present day, focusing on how artists have conveyed the evolution of the emancipatory processes of Modernism and the current frustration in the face of "global" crises, including climate change and migration.
The exhibition is curated by Kate Fowle in collaboration with Andrea Valencia. For more information on Part I, visit: https://www.museotamayo.org/exposiciones/las-paradojas-del-internacionalismo-narradas-por-la-coleccion-del-museo-tamayo, and for Part II, visit: https://www.museotamayo.org/exposiciones/las-paradojas-del-internacionalismo-narradas-por-la-coleccion-del-museo-tamayo-parte-ii