?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 5,000
RODOLFO MORALES Hombre con Sandia.
Acrylic on Masonite, circa 1960. 612x422 mm; 24 1/4x16 3/4 inches. Signed, titled and annotated in ink, verso.
Provenance: Private collection, New York; private collection, Chicago.
A Zapotec Native American, born to working class parents in the small town of Ocotlán de Morelos, Morales (1925-2001) was a solitary child who gravitated to art. From 1948 to 1953 he studied art at the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City. He graduated with a specialty in drawing and began a 32-year career as an art teacher at Escuela Nacional Preparatoria, a position he held from 1953 until 1985. Morales is best known for his brightly colored surrealistic dream-like canvases and collages, made at the height of his career, often featuring Mexican women in village settings. He was notable for his restoration of historic buildings in Ocotlán de Morelos and, together with Rufino Tamayo and Francisco Toledo, helped make Oaxaca in Southern Mexico a center for contemporary art and tourism.
A similar painting, and possibly a pendant to the current work, was sold at Bonhams, New York, November 7, 2011, lot 39.
