This is a very difficult print to find. It is an early print, from 1974, and was published by Daniel Gervis Editions, in Paris, France. This lithograph is in outstanding condition, which is not common for these earlier works. It is signed, lower left, and numbered 3/70.
Francisco Toledo is widely regarded as the most important, elusive and controversial artist working in Mexico today. His art draws on human, animal and mineral life and explores both indigenous, Zapotec, and worldwide cultures. He freely associates direct observations from nature with metaphors from literature and art. The work of Blake, Goya, and the writings of Kafka and Borges have been especially influential.
A protege of Rufino Tamayo, Toledo traveled and lived in Europe, where he worked briefly with William Stanley Hayter, in Atelier 17. He is a printmaker, painter and sculptor. Toledo is a great patron of the arts in Oaxaca, his native state, where he, as the driving force behind Oaxaca's cultural renaissance, has founded museums and art centers. Toledo is passionately engaged with the history and religion of the indigenous Mexican peoples. His work deals with themes of creation, potency, sensuality and metamorphosis, and is often located in the worlds of the spirit where animals and humans freely comingle.
Since the eighties Toledo has led a parallel life, actively engaged in social projects, running a publishing house and transforming colonial buildings in Oaxaca into cultural centres. They now house remarkable collections of graphics and photographs, as well as spaces for exhibitions and films and a library for the blind, used by locals and visitors. His original artistic vision, zealous insistence on the holistic role of artists in society and radical cultural interventions have made Toledo a major force in contemporary Mexican art.
