Zúñiga, Francisco (Mexican 1912-1998)

Considered to be one of the modern Mexican Masters along with Siqueiros, Cuevas, and Tamayo, Francisco Zúñiga first became well known with his paintings, followed by his monumental work in sculpture, before turning to lithography in 1972. Born in Guadalupe, San Jose, Costa Rica in 1912, he was the son of Manuel Maria Zúñiga and Maria Chavarria. By age 13 he was assisting in his father's wood sculpture workshop. He takes up oil painting by 1928; he wins a prize for a small wood sculpture in 1929 at the National Fine Arts Exhibition; he carves his first stone sculpture in 1930 for which he wins a prize at the National Fine Arts Exhibition and beginning in 1930 he wins prizes in oil painting. In 1934 he completes two church murals and completes a series of woodcuts he began in 1933. This would be his last output of prints until he begins work in lithography in 1972.

Zúñiga moved to Mexico in 1936. By 1938 he had obtained a permanent job as sculptor assistant at the La Esmeralda school, becoming a professor in 1939. As a member of the Mexican Sculptors Society and the Mexican Artists Society he is able to show his work in many exhibitions, including some in the United States and Canada. By 1943 the Metropolitan Museum of New York has acquired some of his work.

Our concern here is with his prints. His first lithographs were done at Editions Press in San Francisco, some as part of the Mexican Masters Project. He completed nine lithographs at Editions Press in 1972-73. He then made a transition to a long lasting association with Kyron Press in Mexico City, working solely with them through 1980 and occasionally thereafter.

In 1979 he traveled to Europe, particularly to Carrara, Italy, where he worked directly with carving marble on site. He is able to continue print work while in Europe at Atelier Mourlot in Paris, and then at Poligrafa in Barcelona. Poligrafa specialized in the mylar method of producing lithographs, where the artist provided his drawing on mylar sheets, one for each color. This was a chemical process for producing prints and while that medium was helpful in doing the color work, the texture of stone could not come through. In 1982 he returned to Kyron but in the following years would also alternate to Mourlot and Poligrafa and several other print houses. In late 1983 he did work with American Atelier in New York, again using the mylar method (with better results), finally returning to Atelier Mourlot for his last three prints in 1986. It is significant that his last three works were a return to stone lithography. He preferred stone lithography where he was successful in transferring three dimensional sculptural expressions of his sculptural work to the flat lithographic surface. His work is about forms. In sculpture he would blur the details. In drawing and lithographs objects are recognizable but done with minimal line. Figures may be in native clothing but without detail. Form was everything.

As his prints are our focus here, below is a timeline list of the printers and the number of prints produced at each.
1972-73 Editions Press 9 prints
1973 Grafica Mexicana 1 print
1973-80 Kyron Press 47 prints
1981 Atelier Mourlot 5 prints
1981 Poligrafa 5 prints
1982 Kyron Press 4 prints
1982 Atelier Mourlot 12 prints
1982 Kyron Press 4 prints
1982-83 Taller de Grafica Mex. 2 prints
1983 Wolfensberg, Zurich 1 print
1983 Poligrafa 3 prints
1983 Kyron Press 1 print
1984 American Atelier 6 prints
1984 Eldindean Press 1 print (an etching)
1985 American Atelier 1 print
1986 Atelier Mourlot 3 prints.

1986 was also the year he became a Mexican citizen after living there for 50 years. By 1990 he was blind, but continued working in terra-cotta. All work stops in 1993. Several major exhibitions of his work occur in the following years. He dies at home on August 9th, 1998.

A significant relationship for Zúñiga was his long-term association with Jerry Brewster of New York. In 1977 Brewster became his publisher and sole distributor of prints for the remainder of his output. A milestone in this relationship was the publication in 1984 of the catalogue raisonne "The Complete Graphics 1972-1984" written by Brewster and Burt Chernow. Until the publication in 2003 of volume II of the Complete Works of Zúñiga (three volumes total - Francisco Zúñiga - Catalogue Raisonne) by Albedrio in association with Fundacion Zúñiga Laborde, A.C., the Brewster volume was the best source of information on the prints. The new book contains much more, especially text by Ariel Zúñiga and Andrew Vlady, who was his associate at Kyron Press. In our listing of Zúñiga's prints, the Albedrio catalogue numbers are used with a reference to the Brewster number for prints up to 1984.