The Guadalajara Reporter

Grimm’s Fairy Tales gone erotic

A big collection of small drawings and a smattering of other works by celebrated Oaxacan artist Francisco Toledo are on display at the University of Guadalajara’s Museo de las Artes until September 2.

“Libreta de apuntes/sketchbook” treats the viewer to a look at the ink and watercolor musings of Toledo, who is arguably Mexico’s most renowned living artist. The show is said to be the result of a collector’s idea to take apart and publicize the sketchbook, approximately 8 by 10 inches, which he had been storing at his gallery since Toledo gave it to him in the 1980s.

One may expect that work from a sketchbook might not be of the same technical caliber as an artist’s principal work, and such is the case here, at least according to the comments of some viewers. One unique and pleasant aspect of the drawings is the novel fashion in which they are displayed in the museum — matted, sandwiched between glass, and hung from the ceiling in banks of three or four throughout the center of the room, so that both sides of the paper, sometimes curly from watercolor, can be seen.

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