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Lot 375
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Rodolfo Morales Mixed Media Collage - Puppies (1993)
Rodolfo Morales Mixed Media Collage - Puppies (1993)
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Rodolfo Morales (Mexican, 1925-2001). Puppies Drinking Tea. Mixed Media Collage, 1993. Signed at lower right. A playful yet tender mixed media collage, this work by Rodolfo Morales presents two wide-eyed puppies flanking a tea bag labeled "Plantation Mint," surrounded by shimmering silver hearts inscribed "10 de Mayo" and "Felicidades," transforming an everyday object into a dreamlike celebration of memory and affection. Constructed from layered papers, cut shapes, lace, metallic foils, soft felts, and commercial packaging, the composition exemplifies Morales' lifelong fascination with collage as both intimate ritual and public expression. The puppies, rendered in flat planes of rich brown and warm yellow, face forward with exaggerated eyes, elongated snouts, and gently extended paws. Their simplified, almost mask-like faces and playful red tongues give them a childlike immediacy and innocence. Size of collage: 19.25" W x 13" H (48.9 cm x 33 cm); of frame: 23.5" W x 17.5" H (59.7 cm x 44.4 cm)

Between them, the green tea bag wrapper becomes a central vertical axis, its commercial typography framed by bands of purple and green that anchor the image.

Scattered across the pink patterned ground are embossed silver hearts reading "10 de Mayo," the date of Mother's Day in Mexico, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Other silver labels proclaim "Felicidades." These celebratory tokens lend the collage the feeling of a handmade offering, recalling the festive decorations of village homes and school celebrations. Morales, born in Ocotlan de Morelos to Zapotec parents, often drew upon rural traditions and communal rituals. Women and memory were at the heart of his work, and he once remarked that Mexico would be lost without the steadfast work of women. The inclusion of Mother's Day references in this piece resonates closely with that sentiment.

Though best known for his luminous, dreamlike canvases populated by Mexican women in village settings, Morales also created numerous collages, sometimes selling small daily works to fund the Rodolfo Morales Cultural Foundation, which restored historic churches and civic buildings in Oaxaca. His collages share the same magic realist sensibility as his paintings. Ordinary objects float in a space between nostalgia and fantasy, where scale, proportion, and narrative loosen into something poetic and personal.

Here, the puppies - a recurring motif in his visual vocabulary - become affectionate stand-ins for loyalty, tenderness, and domestic warmth. Their oversized faces and stylized limbs echo Morales' characteristic exaggeration of hands, feet, and features. The lace border at the top and the layered ribbons around the edge evoke household textiles, reinforcing the theme of home and maternal celebration.

Despite Morales' reluctance to assign fixed meanings to his works, this collage feels like a small altar to affection - to mothers, to shared cups of tea, to village festivity, and to memory itself. It captures the fertile, nostalgic atmosphere that defined Morales' art, where folklore, devotion, and everyday life dissolve into a vivid, affectionate dream.

Oaxaca master Rodolfo Morales attended the Academia de San Carlos in Mexico City and taught art at the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria in Mexico City. He was relatively unknown until Rufino Tamayo discovered his work in 1975 at his first solo exhibition in Cuernavaca. Ever since, Morales' art has been widely exhibited. Highlights include: "Aspects of Contemporary Mexican Painting" at the Americas Society, New York (1990); "Mito y Magia in America" at Museo de Arte Contemporaneo in Monterrey, Mexico (1991); Hechizo de Oaxaca in the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City (1992); "Myth and Magic: Oaxaca Past and Present" at the Palo Alto (California) Cultural Center (1994); and "Rodolfo Morales: Juegos y Evocaciones" (1996), a retrospective of Morales' work opened at the Mexican Museum in San Francisco and toured the United States and Canada. In addition, Morales has had major mural commissions in Oaxaca and Mexico City.

Provenance: ex-private Moore collection, Denver, Colorado, USA, acquired prior to 1990

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Item # 201160

  • Condition: Excellent. Mounted behind glass in custom matte and frame; has not been examined outside of glass. A few scuffs to frame that do not affect collage. Otherwise, collage appears to be in excellent overall condition with artist's signature at lower right and

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June 25, 2026 9:00 AM MDT
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