Francisco Zúñiga

Francisco Zúñiga was a Costa Rican-born Mexican artist best known for his stylized figurative paintings and sculptures. Zúñiga’s work often adopts qualities of pre-Columbian art, especially in his stone sculptures which strive to maintain a timeless, mysterious quality in their boldly simplified forms. Most of his work depicts female figures either as nudes within natural environs, or as contemporary women walking through the markets of Mexico. Born on December 27, 1912 in Barrio de San José, Costa Rica, both of his parents were sculptors. Zúñiga was deeply influenced by the German Expressionists and the sculptor Auguste Rodin early in his artistic development. Today, his works can be found in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.  The artist became a Mexican citizen 50 years after his arrival to the country, and died on August 9, 1998 in Tlapan, Mexico. (artnet.com)