The end of the year is a particularly busy time for all of us. We are shopping, we are cooking, we are praying. I am praying to all the Gods and Muses that inspire artists to create their best work. When I see artworks that stop me in my tracks, I swear I start to hear divine whispers.
Internationally-known Mexican artist Francisco Toledo (b. 1940) has a very focused, very special exhibition at Latin American Masters gallery at Bergamot Station. There a few dozen mixed-media portraits of old men – all of them rather sober, and moody. All of them, staring at us, demanding our attention.
These are self-portraits of Toledo, who is 77 years old. Toledo doesn’t make the slightest effort to make himself look younger, or to compliment himself in any way. In one portrait, he is mercilessly naked and shivering. In another, he paints himself as a cat. Yes – his body is 77 years old, but Gods and Muses keep his spirit and soul young.