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many governments, including the u.s., provide direct funding for the arts. but mexico's program also provides artists a unique venue for expressing their innermost felings at tax time. some officials still stifle chuckles about the time two years ago when francisco toledo, the nation's most prominent artist, handed over 27 sketchbooks which he had titled "cuadernos de la mierda," or "notebooks of shit," as payment for the 2000 tax year.
his earnings for that year had included $446,000 for a single piece sold at a christie's auction—a personal record. officially, the art experts say the sketchbooks, which include a diagram of 31 different piles of dung and a drawing of a skeleton defecating, are an "exploration of the scatological influences in pre-columbian culture."
"you could say there was some irony in that," says mr. toledo, a lean man with wild black hair who spoke between sips of dark beer. mr. toledo, who spends much of what he earns funding free museums, theaters, an art institute and other programs in his home town of oaxaca, says he can do more than the government bureaucracy by donating much of what he earns. "i'm doing the government's job."
in fact, mr. toledo complains that his own tax break is nothing compared with the exemptions enjoyed by the owners of the nation's biggest banks, banamex and bancomer, who paid no capital-gains taxes after selling the institutions for billings of pesos during the past four years.
- john lyons, "sculpture or tax loophole? mexico demands more of artists in 'pay in kind' program," wall street journal april 6, 2004
posted April 10, 2004 in art. 20032001