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Chapulines [Grasshoppers]
Chapulines [Grasshoppers]

Chapulines [Grasshoppers]

Primary (Juchitán, Oaxaca, Mexico, 1940–2019)
NationalityMexican, North America
Date1975
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsFramed: 40 1/8 × 52 in. (102 × 132.1 cm)
Sight: 39 7/16 × 51 3/8 in. (100.1 × 130.5 cm)
Credit LineBlanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Archer M. Huntington Museum Fund, P1975.23.5
Keywords
Rights Statement
Collection AreaLatin American Art
Object numberP1975.23.5
On View
Not on view
Label Text
Francisco Toledo studied art in both Mexico and Europe, becoming a major figure in Latin American art. His exquisite craftsmanship paralleled his imaginative subjects, often inspired by his childhood experiences in Veracruz and Oaxaca. Growing up in a family with Zapotec ancestry, he was encouraged to create art and explore the natural world around him, while his relatives taught him in the Zapotec language about the local myths, legends, and customs. Toledo enjoyed eating chapulines as Oaxacan have done since ancient times. But in addition to serving as crunchy snacks, grasshoppers can quickly reproduce and change into locusts when adverse conditions threaten their survival, eating all vegetation in their path. Here, Toledo focuses on that transformative moment when the insects quietly come together to breed, surrounded by the beautiful rich gray and earthy tones of the Oaxacan landscape. Their offspring may grow to be solitary grasshoppers or become gregarious yet destructive locusts.  
Exhibitions