Cultural events

Exhibition: The Fantastic Zoology by Francisco Toledo

exhibition

This show is the result from combining the extraordinary creations produced by two prominent 20th century artists: Jorge Luis Borges and Francisco Toledo.In 1983 Oaxacan artist Francisco Toledo tried his hand at illustrating the Handbook of Fantastic Zoology by Jorge Luis Borges 1953, commissioned by Fondo de Cultura Económica de México. Bestiaries, which were extremely popular during the Middle Ages, date back to Aristotle and classical Greece. In this manuel, Borges and Guerrero put together a collection of beings from a whole range of eras and literary traditions, and also attempt to create beasts based on suppositions of creatures taht writers like Kafka, Lewis and Poe might have imagined or conjured up. These beings were recrated by fantastic Oaxacan artist Francisco Toledo, who had formerly rendered beings inspired by the tradition of his homeland: chapulines (grasshoppers), iguanas, lizards, turtles, monkeys. Toledo embraced the complex venture of depicting and coloring the beasts envisaged and created ny Borges and guerrero to produce the magnificent series of drawings and watercolors that structure this show.