Mario Toral

Mario Toral Muñoz
Native name	En la playa de la casa amarilla
Born	Santiago, Chile
Nationality	Chilianan
Education	Montevideo, Uruguay High Art School, École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris
Known for	Universidad de Chile metro station Mural, "Memoria Visual de una Nación" (Visual Memory of a Nation).
Style	Modern
Movement	Muralismo mexicano (Mexican Mural)
Awards	Medal of honor from the Pablo Neruda Foundation

Mario Toral Muñoz (born in Santiago, Chile, on 12 February 1934) is a Chilean painter and photographer.

At the age of 16, Toral moved to Buenos Aires, where he saved money to enroll in the Escuela de Bellas Artes (School of Fine Arts) in Montevideo, 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 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 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, illustrating a number of his poems, including a 1963 edition of Alturas de Macchu Picchu.

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

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