General Information

Dedicated principally to the former private collection of Mexican painter Rufino Tamayo and temporary exhibits of contemporary art, the art museum displays a permanent collection of over 300 paintings, sculptures and more by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró and René Magritte.

Additional Information

The museum is part of the Institucion Nacional de Bellas Artes and the Mexican national network of museums. It is operated in conjunction with the Olga and Rufino Tamayo Foundation, whose director is David Cohen. Most of museum activities relate to the permanent collection and the temporary exhibits but it also hosts night events, guided tours, workshops, classes and a club for children. The museum attracts over 126,000 visitors each year. It has five main halls for exhibitions, along with a cafeteria and a museum shop, as well as an auditorium.

Collection: Highlights

The permanent collection contains 315 works, among others paintings, sculptures, engravings, photographs, textiles, drawings and art objects, mostly representing trends from the mid 20th century. It includes artists such as Picasso, Mark Rothko, Joan Miró, Max Ernst, Fernand Léger, Fernando Botero, Francis Bacon, Pierre Soulages and René Magritte.

Cyberlounge: Highlights

A noteworthy feature of the museum is the so-called Cyberlounge, opened in 2001 and dedicated to electronic art. Visitors can see artwork online, view videos and listen to music. It is also meant to encourage artistic experimentations, with furniture especially designed for it by Mexican architect Bernardo Gomez-Pimienta.

Architecture: Highlights

Museo Rufino Tamayo was the first major museum in Mexico built with private funds, with Tamayo participating in its design, which won the National Architecture Prize in 1982. The museum building is a modular construction from the 1980s, expanded in 2012 in a small section of Chapultepec Park which it shares with the Museo Nacional de Antropología e Historia.

History: Highlights

Later in life, artist Rufino Tamayo and his wife Olga collected international contemporary art. In the late 1970s, the couple decided to donate the collection of about 300 pieces with a value of over ten million USD to the government with the purpose of creating a museum. The museum was inaugurated on May 29, 1981.

History: Explained

Tamayo initially tried to get the Mexican government to fund the opening of the museum but was rejected several times, with the only result being the donation of its current land. In 2000, the museum’s facilities were modernized with new facilities, such as the Cyberlounge. In 2009 plans were announced for the expansion of the museum from three halls to five and extending total space to 1,600 square metres. The museum closed in 2011 and reopened on August 26, 2012. The work expanded the museum’s area by thirty per cent, which are now mostly pedagogical areas, exhibit space, storage facilities, museum store and a restaurant. The cost of the work was over 100 million pesos, one third of which was raised by the Tamayo Foundation.