Rufino Tamayo was born on August 25, 1899 in what is now the Posada Don Mario, located in the Historic Center of Oaxaca, very close to the ex-convent of Santo Domingo.

He began his professional and academic education in 1915, when he entered the San Carlos Academy of Fine Arts in Mexico City.

His first exhibition was in 1926. This exhibition was a recognition that allowed him to exhibit his works at the Art Center in New York.

Tamayo gradually moved away from realism. He painted the internal areas, the atmosphere, the urban or village landscapes, the nature of his local reality.

In its production it is possible to identify two distinct stages. The first, from the 1920s to the mid-1950s, has a neofiguration close to realism, but always defending or maintaining the connection between its themes and social problems.

Tamayo is considered one of the leading artists in the history of Mexico on a par with Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco or David Alfaro Siqueiros, although his work does not have such a political focus as theirs.