Rufino Tamayo was born in Oaxaca, Mexico. Orphaned as a young boy, Rufino moved to Mexico City to live with his aunt. Even in childhood, he showed a talent for painting and also had an interest in music. He began taking art classes in the evenings and later attended the School of Fine Arts in Mexico City. He found the classes too traditional for his liking, however, and left the school after only a few years.

In 1921, Tamayo took a position as head of ethnographic drawing at the National Museum of Archaeology in Mexico City. He was responsible for making sketches of the pre-Columbian art in the museum's collection. This work influenced Tamayo's early portraits and still-life paintings in which he incorporated the colors and forms of the pre-Columbian pieces.

In 1936, Tamayo moved to New York City, where he lived for more than ten years and taught painting at the Dalton School. During this time, he also continued to produce a large number of paintings. In 1957, the artist moved to Paris, where he lived for six years. He eventually returned to his native Mexico, however, and lived out the rest of his life there.

Tamayo's paintings show influences of his Mexican heritage as well as modern European art, combined in his own unique and distinctive way. He used bold, bright colors in a semiabstract style.