Mario Toral Muñoz (born in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

, Chile, on 12 February 1934) is a Chilean painter and photographer.

Career

At the age of 16, Toral moved to

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

, where he saved money to enroll in the Escuela de Bellas Artes (School of Fine Arts) in

Montevideo Montevideo () is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

, Uruguay. He later went to Brazil, where at 21 the first exhibition of his work was shown at the Sao Paulo Museum of Modern Art. In 1957, Toral moved to France, where he studied at the

School of Fine Arts The School of Fine Arts or College of Fine Arts is the official name or part of the name of several schools of fine arts, often as an academic part of a larger university. These include: The Americas North America *Alabama School of Fine ...

in Paris. Between 1973 and 1992, Toral lived in New York City. Major works completed during this period include ''Prisioneras de Piedra'' (Prisoners of Stone, 1974–1977) and ''Mascaras'' (Masks, 1979–1981). Returning to Chile in 1992, Toral was a professor at the

Pontifical Catholic University of Chile The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (''PUC or UC Chile'') ( es, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile) is one of the six Catholic Universities existing in the Chilean university system and one of the two pontifical universities i ...

and Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Finis Terrae University. In September 2007 Toral received the medal of honor from the Pablo Neruda Foundation in recognition of his career trajectory and contributions to Chilean culture. Toral had collaborated with the poet

Pablo Neruda Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda (; ), was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Nerud ...

, illustrating a number of his poems, including a 1963 edition of ''Alturas de Macchu Picchu''.

''Memoria Visual de una Nación''

Mural de Toral en metro estacion Universidad de Chile

In 1999, Toral completed the mural ''Memoria Visual de una Nación'' (Visual Memory of a Nation), located at the

Universidad de Chile metro station Universidad de Chile (in Spanish: ''University of Chile'') station is a transfer station between the Line 1 and Line 3 of the Santiago Metro. It is an underground station located between La Moneda and Santa Lucía stations on the same line. It ...

in Santiago. The painting measures 1200 square meters, is located in the platform area and divided into two sections: "Pasado" (“Past”), and "Presente" (“Present”). It shows fragments of Chile's history, from the violent Spanish conquest to the modern day. Toral has said of the mural, “I received the invitation to do this mural when I was living in New York. I immediately thought of the history of Chile as a theme as it was time to rediscover my origins after being away for so long; I also thought to narrate the story in such a way that we would all feel represented. I researched for two years, travelling around the country, reading and interviewing historians, poets and representatives of our original peoples. Afterwards, between 1995 and 1998, I worked in the Neptuno workshops, where a metallic structure was built that replicated the Universidad de Chile metro station and the 1200 square meters I was to paint.” In 2011,

Lonely Planet Lonely Planet is a travel guide book publisher. Founded in Australia in 1973, the company has printed over 150 million books. History Early years Lonely Planet was founded by married couple Maureen and Tony Wheeler. In 1972, they embarked ...

named Universidad de Chile one of its "Subway stations worth getting off the train for", and in 2014, the BBC named it one of the seven most beautiful stations in the world.Plataforma Urbaba
Estación de metro U. de Chile es elegida entre las 7 más bonitas del mundo

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Toral, Mario 1934 births Living people People from Santiago Chilean photographers Chilean people of Spanish descent 20th-century Chilean painters Chilean male artists 21st-century painters Chilean male painters Male painters 20th-century Chilean male artists

Career

''Memoria Visual de una Nación''

See also

References