Artist of the Day, October 8, 2025 : Francisco Zúñiga Chavarría, a Costa Rican-born Mexican artist (#2386)

José Jesús Francisco Zúñiga Chavarría (1912 – 1998) was a Costa Rican-born Mexican artist, known both for his painting and his sculpture. Journalist Fernando González Gortázar lists Zúñiga as one of the 100 most notable Mexicans of the 20th century, while the Encyclopædia Britannica calls him "perhaps the best sculptor" of the Mexican political modern style.

Zúñiga was born in Guadalupe, Barrio de San José, Costa Rica to Manuel Maria Zúñiga and María Chavarría, both sculptors. His father worked as a sculptor of religious figures, and in stone work. His artistic inclinations began early and by the age of twelve had already read books on the history of art, artistic anatomy and the life of various Renaissance painters. At age fifteen he began working in his father's shop. This experience sensitized him to shape and spaces. In 1926 he enrolled in the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Mexico, but left the following year to continue on his own. As part of his self-study, he studied German Expressionism and the writings of Alexander Heilmayer, through which he learned of the work of two French sculptors, Aristide Maillol and Auguste Rodin, coming to appreciate the idea of subordinating technique to expression.

Zúñiga's painting and sculpting work began receiving recognition in 1929. His first stone sculpture won second prize at the Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes. In the following two years continued to win top prizes at this event. This work made critics recommend him for study abroad. He won first prize in a 1935 Latin American sculpture competition, the Salón de Escultura en Costa Rica, but the work caused controversy and the government rescinded its award. In the 1930s, he began to research pre Hispanic art and its importance to contemporary Latin American art, as well as what was happening artistically in Mexico. The scholarship never materialized so various colleagues organized his first individual exhibition in Costa Rica. The earnings from this endeavor earned his passage to Mexico City. In 1936 he immigrated to Mexico permanently.

In the capital, his first contact with Manuel Rodríguez Lozano, who opened his library to Zúñiga. He did some formal study at La Escuela de Talla Directa, working with Guillermo Ruiz, sculptor Oliverio Martínez, and painter Rodríguez Lozano. In 1937 he worked as an assistant to Oliverio Martínez on the Monument to the Revolution, the re-imagined building that had begun as the Federal Legislative Palace conceived during the regime of Porfirio Díaz. In 1938, he took a faculty position at La Esmeralda; he remained at that position until retiring in 1970. In 1958 he was awarded the first prize in sculpture from the Mexican National Institute of Fine Arts.

In the 1940s, the New York Museum of Modern Art acquired the sculpture Cabeza de niño totonaca and the Metropolitan Museum of Art requested two of his drawings. He also helped to found the Sociedad Mexicana de Escultores and received commissions in various parts of Mexico.

In 1949, he was part of the founding board of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana, and in 1951, he joined the Frente Nacional de Artes Plástica of Francisco Goitia .

Zúñiga created over thirty five public sculptures, such as the monument to poet Ramón López Velarde in the city of Zacatecas and others dedicated to Mexican heroes. In the 1940s he created two sculpture for Chapultepec Park, Muchachas corriendo and Física nuclear. In 1984 he created a group of sculptures called Tres generaciones for the city of Sendai, Japan. During his lifetime, these were considered his most important works. Since then, they have become secondary to his other sculpting.

He stated that he preferred figurative art because he found the human figure to be “the most important aspect of the world around (him)”. He was also strongly influenced by pre Hispanic art, spending significant time sketching pieces in museums, along with images of women in traditional markets, feeling that they represented maternity and familial responsibility.

Museums holding his works in their permanent collections include the San Diego Museum of Art,[12] the New Mexico Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Phoenix Art Museum, the Ponce Museum of Art in Puerto Rico, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.

© 2025. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by José Jesús Francisco Zúñiga Chavarría or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only

Francisco Zúñiga Chavarría

...at work!

La tierra, c. 1961

Desnudo Sentado,  c.1962

Seated Woman with Rebozo,  c.1962

Tehuanas con Iguana II,  c.1962

Desnuda reclinada,  c.1963

Standing Woman with Shawl,  c.1963

Dos Mujeres en Pie,  c.1964

Madre e Hija Sentadas,  c.1965

Desnudo de Silvia reclinada,  c.1967

Juchiteca Sentada,  c.1967

Sylvia Agachada, version 1,  c.1967

Maternidad,  c.1967-68

Bending Woman,  c.1970

Standing Woman),  c.1970

Juchiteca Sentada,  c.1972

Seated Yucatan Woman,  c.1973

Grupo de cuatro mujeres de pie,  c.1974

Maternidad,  c.1974

Seated Woman with Shawl),  c.1974

Madre e hija en banca,  c.1975

Madre e Hija en Banca,  c.1975

La calera,  c.1976

Muchacha en una silla,  c.1976

Domitila,  c.1977

La calera (The Lime Seller),  c.1977

Virginia Sentada con Ropaje,  c.1977

Dos Mujeres Sentadas,  c.1978

Tres Mujeres Caminando,  c.1979

Mujer ConLa Mano En La Cara,  c.1980

Pescadores con red,  c.1981

Egyptians,  c.1982