Wood Choppers

Wood Choppers
Rufino Tamayo
1937
Materials
Watercolor
Size
10 7/8 x 8 1/4 inches
Racine Art Museum, WPA, New York Federal Art Project
About the artwork.
Living in New York City for a period of time in the 1930s, Rufino Tamayo created artwork while supported by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). It is documented that Tamaayo produced an “easel painting” every month for a fee. Identified as “wood choppers,” the workers in this watercolor are anonymous yet their hat and clothes reflect the artist’s noted connections to Mexican subject matter and directly correspond to other pieces he created with this theme in mind.