Art: Like a Mother

Mexico's aging "Big Three"—Orozco, Siqueiros and Rivera—have plastered miles of Mexican walls with bayonets, clenched fists, streaming banners and broken chains. That kind of thing is no longer up-to-date. Last week Rufino Tamayo, 47, the most important of Mexico's "younger" painters, opened a one-man show in Manhattan. Revolutionary violence is not his game; he paints the classless society of his own imagination.

Tamayo's paintings hang in over a dozen U.S. museums, sell like hot tamales at prices ranging up to $5,000. His new show impressed critics and tickled Tamayo collectors as usual. And, as...