Lot Essay
At the age of twenty four (and unable to travel to Europe due to the war), Zúñiga left Mexico to study at La Esmerelda, the school of painting and sculpture. In 1967, he finally traveled to the great museums of Europe and worked in Spain, France and Italy (where he was nominated an honorary member of L'Accademia Italia Dell'Arte del Lavoro in Parma) until his return in 1980. The enchantment of Zúñiga's sculpture lies within its Mexican Indian tradition which manages to break through the constraints of the archaic stylization that was so poplular in the Twentieth century. In the present lot, Zúñiga demonstraits how he masters the classical while simultaneously remaining faithful to his fascination of the sublime American race.