At the age of 23, Zuniga arrived in Mexico from his native Costa Rica, and, while working as an assistant in several sculpture studios, he discovered the world of pre-Hispanic art at the old Anthropology Museum in Mexico City. In 1937 he contributed to the stone sculptures of Oliverio Martinez in the "Monumento a la Revolucion." The next year, he joined the faculty of "La Esmerelda," the prestigious Mexican School of Painting and Sculpture of the National Institute of Fine Arts and remained there until 1970, all the while creating monumental works. Later, he dedicated more time and effort to his lithographs, drawings and sculptures. In 1947 he married Elena Laborde with whom he had three children. He died on August 9, 1998 in Mexico City.
Exuberant, sensuous volumes and majestic proportions lend each Zuniga woman a sense of sculptural and metaphysical completeness. Zuniga's drawing goes beyond simple technical virtuosity in search of an expression of human values. His poignant sculptures and drawings depict Mexico's indigenous peoples. The familiar cast of characters is presented without smiles or tears. Each sturdy model reflects a resolute resistance to the hardships of everyday life. Each image is infused with a silent intensity and purity of form that also shows in his sculptural work.
Francisco Zuniga's work reveals an inner strength in his subjects and insists on an unpretentious personal standard of beauty that is neither, "chic or pretty in a Western European sense." His Mexican woman sit wrapped in fabric that is sculpturally modeled in rich tones with their faces revealing an unbending determination.
His works are in the permanent collections of many major museums throughout the world including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the MOMA in Mexico City, the Middleheim Museum in Belgium and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC. He was a member of the Mexican Academy of Arts and received the 1992 Mexican Award for the Arts, the highest distinction that the Mexican Government grants to an artist.
|
|
|
