In 1947 Rufino Tamayo (1899–1991) returned to Mexico after spending twelve years living in New York. Shortly after he arrived, the Galería de Arte Mexicano organized an exhibition of his work, and the following year the Palacio de Bellas Artes [Palace of Fine Arts] presented a retrospective of his career. Tamayo’s art does not deal with ruptures or profound changes. A thread of continuity runs through his pictorial development, which expresses a synthesis between the artistic concerns of the Mexican nationalist movement and the formal proposals of the western avant-garde of the early 20th century. Tamayo had moved in post-revolutionary cultural circles since producing his earliest paintings, and was interested in indigenous, traditional aspects of Mexico from a subjective, intimate perspective rather than a narrative, anecdotal point of view. As part of this approach, and among the variety of works produced in those years to express a sense of Mexican-ness, Tamayo used an experimental language associated with formal research and a pictorial expressionism that sought to convey the essence of being Mexican in terms of poetic and philosophical languages rather than political themes. In the late 1940s Tamayo became one of the “great” painters. He decided to challenge David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896–1974) by claiming that he—Tamayo—had launched a new era of painting in Mexico. The two painters became embroiled in a long-running quarrel, each one claiming to represent opposing trends: “social realism” and “poetic realism.” This debate wove its way into international conversations that, during the Cold War, generated divisions based on politics as well as aesthetics. Like his disgruntled colleagues, Tamayo thought the “Big Three” had been authoritarian and monopolistic. The bulk of his criticism lacked objectivity, however, because he attacked Rivera, Orozco, and Siqueiros without ever acknowledging their artistic contributions.