Patricio Moreno Toro

Toro began his art career as a self-taught watercolorist, selling his work at prestigious galleries in Santiago and the annual Parque Forestal where one of his first steady customers was Dr. Salvador Allende, who later became preside
nt of Chile. At the age of 16, he was in his first solo show at Sala de Exposiciones de “El Diario Ilustrad” in Santiago. In 1963, he exhibited solo at Galerie de Arte Taller 13 in Santiago and that same year, at age 19, he won the coveted gold medal in watercolors in a national contest which was awarded during a ceremony that took place at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Valparasio, Chile. He was also part of a collective exhibition at the Museo Nacional de Belles Artes in his hometown of Santiago. During these early years, he worked prolifically, mastering watercolor techniques. Touted in Chile as the "Golden Boy," he received excellent critical reviews and national prizes for his work in watercolor.[i] At the age of 22, he embarked on a solo voyage to Europe in June 1966, in search of culture, new ideas and the possibility to enrich his art. He left the port of Valparaiso on a ship called the Donisetti destined for Barcelona, Spain. Arriving in Spain a month later, he remained in Barcelona for the next two month and through a set of extraordinary circumstances met one of Spain’s foremost painters , José Guinovart, and his wife at the time, Maria Antonia, through a mutual friend, Chilean poet, Nicolas Martin. He lived with the couple for a few weeks and Guinovart helped him sell a few watercolors to earn his train fare to Paris. In France, Toro lived in cheap hotels or crashed in the homes of vague acquaintances while he tried to sell his art. After a few precarious months, Nicolas Martin introduced him to Chilean painter, Roberto Matta, then living in Paris. Matta took the young Toro under his wing, introducing him to French philosopher, Andre Breton, who at the time was on his deathbed. Through Matta, he also met artist, Max Ernst, and accompanied the two to galleries and the opera. For a few months he became Matta’s assistant, friend and disciple. From the maestro he learned the “whys” and “why nots" of painting, the purpose of drawing a line, and the concept of generosity in art. Matta told the young artist (as told in Spanish loosely translated): “If generosity isn’t spontaneous then it becomes impossible to mold whatever it is you are trying to achieve in art. Don’t forget that the main ingredient of art is giving!” During the last couple months that he stayed in Paris, Toro had the pleasure to serve as a personal caretaker for Matta’s son, Jean, a talented illustrator in his own right. From Paris, Toro traveled to and lived in Hamburg, Germany for a couple months, but was uninspired. From Germany, he traveled to Italy, arriving penniless in Rome in the dead of winter, January 1967. In Rome, he immediately sought out director, Roberto Rossellini, whom Toro had met at a party in Santiago two years earlier when introduced by a friend and collector of his watercolors, Ines Peretti. Toro has obtained Rossellini’s personal contact information when he arrived at the Santiago party, watercolor in hand to give to the director whose work he greatly admired. Toro stayed in Italy for eleven months, earning money and favors by trading his paintings and acting as an extra in Rossellini’s documentary films and several other feature films, including spaghetti Westerns. During this time in Rome he met Inger Falck, who would later become his second wife. Together the two left Italy in December 1967 and hitchhiked to her home in Sweden. Settling together in the small village of Strassa, Sweden, Toro began painting large canvases in oils, experimenting with hexagonal -shaped canvases and new abstract forms. Within a month the city of Norastad bought one of his first large oil paintings and Toro’s career as an international artist blossomed. At one of his early exhibits in Sweden, he met the artist, Alf Olsson, with whom he would establish a life-long friendship. Olsson contacted Leif Nielsson, who owned several galleries in Sweden and Denmark. In 1970, Toro produced seven shows in Sweden and Denmark, showing at the Prisma Galleries in Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Sundvall and at the Aguélimuséet in Sala. By sheer coincidence, his mentor Roberto Matta, who was showing simultaneously at the Moderna Musset in Stockholm, attended Toro’s opening, heaping praise on the younger man. Upon hearing of the death of his mother, in September 1970, Toro moved back to Chile, arriving the day before Salvador Allendes’ election in time to cast his vote. He and Inger rented a small house in Santiago and Toro set up a studio on the upper floor. At the time, his friend and mentor, Nemesio Antúñez was the Director of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Santiago. He offered Toro the honor of representing Chile in the 1972 Paris Biennale and a solo show at the museum. One of the paintings that Toro entered in the Biennale was acquired by Pablo Neruda who donated it to the Chilean Embassy in Paris. His 1971 show at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Santiago opened to critical acclaim- large oil paintings of skinless figures both in repose and in motion, organs and intestines prominently exposed, raw as if post-autopsy- as if the paintings were made through a time-traveled partnership between Damien Hirst and Francis Bacon Several months before the September 1973 coup d’etat against President Allende, Toro left Chile again this time with his new wife, Inger, and his seven-year-old son, Gabriel, in tow. The family lived in Sweden until 1974 when they made their way through Europe, settling first in Barcelona and then in nearby Sitges. During these years, Toro produced a large number of paintings that were acquired and shown by Miguel Gaspar, co-owner of Sala Gaspar in Barcelona, one of the oldest galleries in Spain that also showed the works o
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Patricio Moreno Toro

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