Satire, Surrealism and Poetic Whimsy

CONTEMPORARY SURREALISM, social commentary and historical satire all converged at the National Arts Club in New York City this past Jan. 6 for the opening reception of “Los Caprichos de Toledo.” Housed in the historic Samuel Tilden Mansion at 15 Gramercy Park, the exhibition features works on paper by the instinctive storyteller, painter, sculptor, illustrator, and acclaimed fashion chronicler and critic, Ruben Toledo, alongside several selections of the Club’s collection of Francisco Goya etchings from the 1799 “Los Caprichos” series.

The title of the exhibition offers an immediate bridge to Goya’s Los Caprichos (The Caprices), his innovative suite of 80 etchings that delivered a blistering satirical critique of Spanish society at the turn of the 19th century. Pairing Goya’s satirical wit with Toledo’s poetic whimsy creates a potent dialogue about creativity, fantasy, and social commentary — and underscores a persistent truth: The human condition never really changes.

Goya, Toledo, and the Spark of an Idea

Toledo credits curator Robert Yahner with forging the Goya–Toledo connection. “His idea lit my fire,” says Toledo. “Both Goya and I share our Spanish tongue and mind. We possess a certain understanding and necessity for the macabre as well as a comfort with allowing the silence of mystery.”

Yahner recalls the logistical as well as conceptual challenges: “We added the Goya prints as a punctuation to Ruben’s work. The big challenge was framing all of the art on time for the opening. Our framer could only frame 20 of these paintings. I told Ruben that I only have archival frames from ‘Los Caprichos.’ Ruben became passionate when I mentioned ‘Los Caprichos.’ ”

The National Arts Club’s Caprichos have their own story: the Club holds a ninth‑edition set, printed between 1908 and 1912, and gifted by an heir of American painter and Ashcan School leader Robert Henri. Seeing Toledo’s excitement and his deep knowledge of Goya’s series, Yahner suggested integrating the Spanish master’s prints into the show. Toledo immediately agreed. “We have to make it work, of course it will work. We are two crazy Spaniards,” he answered. With that, more of Goya’s “Los Caprichos” came down from the Club’s collection storage and into the conversation.

“Art is the Way We Live”

A highly emotional exhibition filled with symbolism, Toledo’s work underscores a statement by the iconic fashion pioneer Elsa Schiaparelli when she said, “Art is the way we live.” Much like Toledo’s work, this statement reflects a deep-seated philosophy: Fashion and art are spiritually linked and inseparable from the way we live and express ourselves. Toledo tells us, “We all move within a shared creative flow, a sort of universal rhythm, a universe composed of symbols. These symbols are their own language which reach directly to our senses, bypassing our logic or reasoning but penetrating into our very soul. This is why art is so important to our lives.”

Centering the Female Form

As a fashion archivist and influential scribe, Toledo recognizes that the female form is placed in the center of Goya’s “Los Caprichos” series. “She is the main persona which all the action revolves around — she may be old or young, wicked or pure, but she is never passive. She absolutely activates his composition, sets his world in motion, and provides emotional contrast.”

Toledo is convinced that Goya was ahead of his time, absolutely an early feminist artist. “Goya’s mysterious witches and pampered maidens — his coquettes veiled behind scented fans – are all casting a sure-fire spell that holds our gaze or, better yet, demands it.”

Much like Goya, Toledo’s vision demonstrates that fashion is the longing of an entire society and purest expression of the moment on the world stage. His work also recognizes the female form as its favorite performer. “She is the ultimate shape shifter able to dress in emotions and wear her ideas and thoughts in layers to outwardly illustrate how multifaceted her mind is,” says the insightful Toledo. “This is female empowerment on the highest level, not only to assert her strength but to share it capriciously and freely, to uplift everyone who catches a glimpse of her or comes near her. This ability to juggle strength, courage, truth and the feeling of beauty is a magic power, a rare incantation.”

From Etching to Inkblot: Technique and Mood

Goya’s primary medium in “Los Caprichos” was etching, complemented by aquatint, a relatively new technique at the time. It allowed for a rich tonal power, texture and mood. Toledo was able to achieve a comparable sense of texture and mood by resurrecting the Rorschach in his inkblot series where he made compelling social statements using texture, humor and illusion. The inkblot illustrations were created for Visionaries Magazine’s Black Issue in 1992 which was a reaction to the way the AIDS crisis devastated and penetrated our world, particularly the creative communities.

“My wife Isabel and I sadly lost friends as early as 1980-81 before it even had a name,” says Toledo. “By 1992 there was some hope on the horizon. The creative community had been rallying powerfully for support and hopeful for solutions to this shared nightmare. When asked to cover the season’s designer collections, I used the marvelously imaginative Rorschach test to project not only the darkness of the season’s looks, but also the beauty and mysteriously poetic images the world’s top designers were proposing for 1992.”

In the inkblot series, Toledo wanted to show the power of creativity by allowing the viewers to engage with their own imaginations when seeing each fashion inkblot. In this way, viewers would be free to project what they saw in each designer’s vision. “I wanted to invite my audience to enter the sensitive space between reality and their own interpretation of it by using fashion design as the connective tissue. I wanted to penetrate their soul by touching their emotions,” he says.

Choreographing a Visual Ballet

Yahner understood that the exhibition’s power would be as much about sequencing as selection. He positioned the inkblots on a dominant wall, placed along a direct sightline from the entrance so that their texture, tone and variety of line immediately engage visitors. To intensify the dialogue, Yahner selected Goya etchings that mirrored the inkblots’ mood and the darkness of Goya’s hidden messages.

With a background in choreography, he approached the installation like a ballet, composing “strokes of rhythm and a mellifluous flow” through the galleries. The back wall was devoted to Toledo’s fashion drawings rendered in pen and ink, pencil and watercolor, giving the show a contrasting sense of delicacy and immediacy.

“For me, watercolor, ink and pencil are the most immediate expressions,” says Toledo. “I am blessed to work very fast so I have no time or need to edit. I also want to work in the most intimate way I know, to communicate in the most personal way possible which for me is ink. The intuitive flow of water and the scratch of the pencil on paper engage all my senses. I hope the viewer can feel their senses awakened through my work.”

Yahner used the mansion’s ornate architecture to frame and differentiate the inkblots from the fashion drawings, “to give a full experience and value to both sets of work.” The color in the fashion pieces functions almost like stage lighting, drawing viewers deeper into the space toward the humor and whimsy anchored on the back wall. Several other walls feature hand‑painted text surrounded by drawings, paintings, and etchings by both Toledo and Goya, adding warmth and humanity to the choreography.

“The installation began with Ruben up on a ladder with a set of colored pencils adding text to the walls in his own calligraphy,” Yahner says. “Ruben insisted on it. It added a musicality to the exhibition.”

Fashion’s “Subconscious” and the Essence of Isabel

The thoughtfully curated works in “Los Caprichos de Toledo” comment on our society, customs, style and the ways in which we choose to project ourselves in today’s world. In doing so, they echo the way Francisco Goya commented on his own 18th‑century reality. “All my artwork aims to communicate that which cannot be precisely labeled or expressed,” says Toledo. “These works go one step beyond fashion illustration, and into the realm of the fashion subconscious where our secret dreams and desires, and even our fears are stored, parading around as real walking fantasies, which can solidify into realities.”

The personable and animated Cuban-born Toledo has been deeply inspired and forever entwined with his late wife Isabel. Together they built a body of work rooted in an enduring devotion to one another. “Isabel was, and is, my muse, still,” says Toledo. “She is at the center of my very core, a creative partner in crime and in love. I learned all about design and about fashion as communication, style as a personal language, and body language as a form of intelligence. All this was the most valuable education which we taught each other. From my perspective, all the women in my artwork personify her fierce courageous spirit of individuality and fearless love for humanity.” The essence of Ruben’s dear Isabel is clearly present in “Los Caprichos de Toledo.”

“For me, art is communication, and fashion is the most instinctive and democratic of all the communicators because we all participate in it whether we realize it or not,” says Toledo. “We all wear clothes daily and project a persona, even if we are trying to be invisible or project that we don’t care about fashion or style. Art is life and life is art.”

PHOTO GALLERY (12 IMAGES)