Melville, Herman — Francisco Toledo [illustrator] | Moby-Dick with original artwork by Toledo

Melville, Herman — Francisco Toledo [illustrator]
Moby Dick o La Ballena. Mexico, D.F.: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1960

2 volumes, 8vo. Illustrated by Francisco Toledo. Twenty full-page mixed media illustrations, including to half-titles, titles, indices, and colophon, several smaller illustrations throughout, tissue guards; some toning to page edges. In full red leather with gilt decoration to boards, spines with raised bands in six compartments, second and third lettered gilt, others with repeat decoration in gilt, first volume's board edges gilt, marbled endpapers; some scratches to boards, very light rubbing at joints, some staining and toning to edges.

A singular, unique copy, containing original artworks by the Oaxacan artist Francisco Toledo. Initially an unremarkable issue, printed in an edition of 5200 copies for the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México’s Nuestros Classicos series, Toledo composed paintings and drawings within this particular copy after its printing.

The artist, activist, and organizer, known affectionately as 'El Maestro,' was one of the most significant contemporary Mexican artists. Upon his death in September 2019, Mexico’s president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, declared that “art is in mourning”. Toledo worked in several media, though he is most well-known for his paintings, and utilized a wide range of materials: natural pigments, handmade paper, shells, stone, ceramic, bone, animal skins, among many others. His work often combines expressionist and surrealist elements with Zapotec mythology, creating images of fantastical, otherworldly creatures along with abstractions. Born the son of a leatherworker, Toledo moved to Paris in 1960, where he came under the mentorship of another Oaxacan painter, Rufino Tomayo. He returned to Mexico in 1965, where he worked tirelessly on his art and as an activist for the rest of his life.

“‘Toledo has no limitations,’ says William Sheehy, director of the Latin American Masters gallery in Los Angeles, who first encountered the artist’s work 40 years ago. The real comparison, he adds, is ‘with Picasso’” (Theroux).

REFERENCE
Theroux, "What Makes Francisco Toledo ‘El Maestro’," Smithsonian Magazine, June 2019.

Condition Report:
Condition as described in catalogue entry.