YAQUINA RIVER MUSEUM OF ART

One of the many eyecatching features of the show is “Village Life in Colombia” painted by Juan B Toro in 1975.

Toro’s painting was purchased by Judy Ross Gibbons in the 70’s in Bogota at the annual benefit art show hosted by St. Alban’s Episcopal Church for patients hospitalized with Hansen’s Disease (more commonly known as leprosy). She never met the artist.  Looking at this painting, one gets the sense of a South American Grandma Moses style piece as Juan Toro depicts figures ranging in size from giant to miniature going about their business in an active village.  From the corrupted general mayhem in the bottom quadrant of the canvas to the sublime depiction of a Mass at a church service at the top under the vigilant eye of the Virgin Mary statue on a mountain peak; the artist has made a work of art from his memory that portrays experience while living within a community somewhere in Colombia in the past.