
Mexico City · Chapultepec
Museo Tamayo
A painter's own museum, folded into the park like a set of concrete terraces
The skylit central hall, stepping down into the ground
Rufino Tamayo gave his international art collection to Mexico and the museum opened in 1981 in Chapultepec park, designed to step down into the ground so that the trees stay taller than the building. It won the national architecture prize and still looks contemporary.
The programme is international contemporary art with a strong commissioning strand, and the permanent holdings include Picasso, Miró, Warhol and Bacon works that Tamayo acquired himself.
The detail
Good to know
- Opened
- 1981
- Founder
- Rufino Tamayo, painter
- Collection
- International modern and contemporary
- Setting
- Chapultepec park, partly underground
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