Untitled,

1975–76

In this flat-woven tapestry, Toledo’s depiction of the natural world becomes a poetic representation of border crossing. The dangling legs of a lone rider complete the staggered row of oxen legs, and just as the wavering reflection of the beasts conveys the shift from land to water, the continuation of the rider’s arm into the stem of an umbrella suggests another transition, to the sky. The preservation and continuity of Toledo’s Indigenous Zapotec heritage were a central motivation for his work as an artist and activist, and this was reflected in his choice of subject, material, and technique. The prolific artist, richly represented in the Museum’s collections, often probed the intersections of humans and animals, pointing to shared experiences and evoking the Mesoamerican tradition of the nagual, a human endowed with the power to shift into animal form.