Sotheby’s upcoming 2018 Impressionist and Modern auction in New York will include an oil painting by Mexican master, Rufino Tamayo. 

The painting is titled Perro Aullando a la Luna (Dog Howling at the Moon) and is estimated to sell between 5 and 7 million USD. 

This is most unusual for a painting by a Latin American artist to be part of a Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern art auction (as Tamayo’s work is typically auctioned in the Latin American sale every Spring and Fall), which is big news for the Rufino Tamayo market and the Mexican and Latin American art market in general. 

It’s an important breakthrough for the Mexican art market because it will most likely increase the prices of artwork by Rufino Tamayo and other Mexican and Latin American masters. 

In the past many Mexican and Latin American masters have been marginalized, their work has been put into a separate category from the mainstream, internationally recognized artists such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matise, and Jackson Pollock. As a result the prices of these artists have remained significantly lower than their European and American counterparts. 

However, by including Rufino Tamayo side by side in auction with the world’s most recognized European and American modern and impressionist painters, giving him the recognition he deserves as a major player in the formation of the modernist art movement, his work will undoubtedly increase in value.  

In addition to increasing the prestige of work by Rufino Tamayo, this auction will expand the audience for his artwork. 

In the past, the markets for these artists have existed primarily in the artists home country. Therefore, if the economy in that country dips or crashes, then the artists’ market will follow. If however, there is an international audience for a particular artist, then an array of buyers (around the world) will help maintain the prices and compete with one another to increase them. 

In short, this event will increase the audience and value for Mexican masters such as Rufino Tamayo, by placing them on the world stage and recognizing them for the important role they played in shaping the modernist art movement.