Diego Rivera thought the name “Tres Grandes” [The Big Three] was ridiculous. He also did not think that Rufino Tamayo should be included in the “trio” because his work was very different from theirs. Though Rivera considered Tamayo to be a good painter, he thought his paintings were for collectors, intellectuals, and snobs. This article also includes Lizardi Ramos’ interview of Antonio Ruiz, the director of the Escuela de Pintura La Esmeralda who—like Rivera—thought that “Tres Grandes” was a name invented by critics who were more interested in promotion and commercial interests than in a true assessment of the Mexican pictorial movement. Lizardi Ramos insisted that there were other “Grandes” [Big Ones] who were not taken into account, such as Rufino Tamayo and Manuel Rodríguez Lozano. 

On September 1, 1947, the Diario Oficial announced the creation of the Comisión Nacional de Pintura Mural [National Mural Painting Commission]. This event officially granted power to three painters who, according to Fernando Leal (1896-1964), baptized themselves with “the almost theological name of ‘los tres grandes’ [The Big Three].” Thus were sown the seeds of a myth that has been building ever since and which is now very difficult to deny. Diego Rivera (1886-1957), José Clemente Orozco (1883-1949), and David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896-1974) became the required reference for any kind of artistic discourse. Not only did the trio continue to refer to themselves by that name yet over the years, art critics, collectors, curators, cultural personnel, painters, and the general public have colluded in aggrandizing their “greatness.” The name gained in stature while Fernando Gamboa (1909-90) was deputy director of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA), because he organized international exhibitions in which he presented the three as the pivotal figures of Mexican art, however along with Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991). Siqueiros invited Tamayo to join the group and make it the “Big Four” but Tamayo never accepted the offer. He was nonetheless, and against his wishes, referred to as such by curators of the period.   See the article by Antonio Rodríguez, “Contra los Grandes. La pintura mural no puede sujetarse a ningún control” [Against the Big Ones: Mural Painting Should Not Be Subjected To Any Control], El Nacional, Mexico City, 24 August 1947 (second section): 1 and 3.