Francisco Toledo
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Francisco Benjamin Lopez Toledo (b. 17th July 1940, Juchitán, Oaxaca, México) is the most important living Mexican graphic artist. He studied at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de Oaxaca and the Centro Superior de Artes Aplicadas del Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Mexico, where he studied graphic arts with Guillermo Silva Santamaria. In 1960 he moved to Paris and travelled throughout Europe. Already at his first visit he became a shooting star in the contemporary European art scene, not at least due to important friendships and contacts like Octavio Paz. In 1965 when he returned to Mexico he started to promote and preserve the arts and crafts in his native state of Oaxaca. A couple of times, he moved to Europe and the USA, but always returned to Mexico after some time. In 1967, his first child Natalia was born, and he bought a house in Juchitán, where he founded the Casa de la Cultura Juchitán in the early 70s and got involved into policital issues. He bought a house in Oaxaca de Juárez in 1976, which is today the Instituto de Artes Graficas de Oaxaca (IAGO).
His social and cultural concerns about his home state led to his participation in the establishment of an important art library at the IAGO, and his involvement in the founding of the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Oaxaca (MACO), the Patronato Pro-Defensa y Conservacion del Patrimonio Cultural de Oaxaca, a library for the blind, a photographic center, and the Eduardo Mata Music Library to name a few of his projects. Toledo's outstanding creativity has been expressed in pottery, sculpture, weaving, graphic arts, and paintings. He has had exhibitions in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain, Belgium, France, Japan, Sweden, the United States, as well as other countries. Toledo is simultaneously an exceptional artist and a patron and guardian of the arts and the crafts and architectural heritage of his state of Oaxaca.
For his social and cultural commitment to the development of his home state, he received the Mexican National Prize (1998), the Prince Claus Award (2000) and the Right Livelihood Award (2005).
External links
- Biography on [Aquí Oaxaca]
- Biography on [Francisco Toledo website]
- Biography on [Right Livelihood Award website]
- Essay by [Dore Ashton]
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