Embassy of Chile Celebrates the Works of Mario Toral Native Son and Artist
Chile is known as the “land of poets,” but she has also given the world luminary artists such as Mario Toral.
On November 22, he was on hand to open his latest exhibition entitled, Bodies and Spirals, which runs until January 2012. The event was held at the Chilean embassy, and Bodies and Spirals is yet another example of the quality presentations hosted by the Chilean Embassy.
The opening, hosted by Arturo Fermandois, Ambassador of Chile, afforded guests a rare opportunity to taste traditional Chilean empanadas, sip Chilean wine, meet the artist in person, and view an exciting exhibit, which is a “must see” if you love contemporary art.
Toral, writer, water colorist, printmaker, illustrator, teacher, is known for his evocative illustrations, delicate watercolors, and bold, sweeping murals. His work has won numerous prizes, including the Guggenheim in 1980. It has been exhibited at distinguished museums such as The Metropolitan Art, MOMA, and the Brooklyn Museum, and Toral has illustrated more than 40 books, including 20 Poemas De Amor by Pablo Neruda.
He stands as a giant with other artists, and is the equal of Chilean masters such as Nobel Prize Poet Pablo Neruda, who said of Toral’s work, “Toral transforms his own transformation, shapes his forms, expands his latitude. Toral explores the unknown universe that haunts us from the high towers.”
As an artist, Toral has always been fascinated by the human form, and he expertly conveys his emotions and place in society using color and his unique representations of the body in both literal and abstract representations. His paintings are haunting in their imaginative use of color and shape.
The motif of many of the paintings included in Bodies and Spirals, reflect Toral’s fascination with geometry and spirals and their universality in art and human evolution. Toral explained his use of geometry and spirals this way:
During a trip I made to India and Nepal a surrounding, powerful, geometric form was fixed in my eyes and memory, present in sculptures, images, music and architecture. This was the spiral, that is born wide, swallowing all that exists like a flowing river or a snake, that later stirs in itself to compress in slimmer forms, become minimal, to gradually grow bigger like it was before, in an unstoppable movement that forms a wavy surface; a chaotic order of universe in a one of a kind swirl of a life and energy.
Recently, he crossed over from the realm of traditional art forms and became an icon in popular culture when three of his paintings were included in iGoogle’s Artist Themes.
Toral is loved for his watercolors and illustrations, but one of his best-loved and inspiring paintings is the murals Memorial Visual de una Nacion, which decorates the walls of the Universidad de Chile station that is part of Santiago, Chile’s Metro system.
Every day, commuters walk back and forth beneath his exquisite depiction of the history of Chile, a work so important its creation was filmed and turned into a documentary, where it subsequently won the prestigious Gran Premio award in the Bienal de Cine Latinoamericano in Trieste, Italy in 2002.
What’s Next? Mark your calendar, grab your art friends, and head over to the Chilean embassy.
Category: ARTS EVENTS, THE ARTS
