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FRANCISCO ZUNIGA (1912-1998)

ARTIST BIO INQUIRENEWS
 
Francisco Zúñiga created sculpture as a boy when he assisted his father, a local sculptor of wooden santos. He turned decisively to sculpture after he arrived in Mexico from his native Costa Rica in 1936 and developed a wide-ranging body of work based on the figure that spanned direct carving in wood, modeling in clay, sculpting directly on hard stone, and bronze casting. "Desnundo Reclinado de Dolores" is a departure in that it neither reflects his interest in pre-Columbian art nor his persistence in depicting indigenous-looking women with exaggerated hips and stomachs. Instead, it is a classically modeled tour de force performance of a hip-rotated, forearm-supported kneeling female that Rodin would have been proud to have claimed as his own.
Francisco Zúñiga created sculpture as a boy when he assisted his father, a local sculptor of wooden santos. He turned decisively to sculpture after he arrived in Mexico from his native Costa Rica in 1936 and developed a wide-ranging body of work based on the figure that spanned direct carving in wood, modeling in clay, sculpting directly on hard stone, and bronze casting. "Desnundo Reclinado de Dolores" is a departure in that it neither reflects his interest in pre-Columbian art nor his persistence in depicting indigenous-looking women with exaggerated hips and stomachs. Instead, it is a classically modeled tour de force performance of a hip-rotated, forearm-supported kneeling female that Rodin would have been proud to have claimed as his own. Francisco Zúñiga created sculpture as a boy when he assisted his father, a local sculptor of wooden santos. He turned decisively to sculpture after he arrived in Mexico from his native Costa Rica in 1936 and developed a wide-ranging body of work based on the figure that spanned direct carving in wood, modeling in clay, sculpting directly on hard stone, and bronze casting. "Desnundo Reclinado de Dolores" is a departure in that it neither reflects his interest in pre-Columbian art nor his persistence in depicting indigenous-looking women with exaggerated hips and stomachs. Instead, it is a classically modeled tour de force performance of a hip-rotated, forearm-supported kneeling female that Rodin would have been proud to have claimed as his own. Francisco Zúñiga created sculpture as a boy when he assisted his father, a local sculptor of wooden santos. He turned decisively to sculpture after he arrived in Mexico from his native Costa Rica in 1936 and developed a wide-ranging body of work based on the figure that spanned direct carving in wood, modeling in clay, sculpting directly on hard stone, and bronze casting. "Desnundo Reclinado de Dolores" is a departure in that it neither reflects his interest in pre-Columbian art nor his persistence in depicting indigenous-looking women with exaggerated hips and stomachs. Instead, it is a classically modeled tour de force performance of a hip-rotated, forearm-supported kneeling female that Rodin would have been proud to have claimed as his own. Francisco Zúñiga created sculpture as a boy when he assisted his father, a local sculptor of wooden santos. He turned decisively to sculpture after he arrived in Mexico from his native Costa Rica in 1936 and developed a wide-ranging body of work based on the figure that spanned direct carving in wood, modeling in clay, sculpting directly on hard stone, and bronze casting. "Desnundo Reclinado de Dolores" is a departure in that it neither reflects his interest in pre-Columbian art nor his persistence in depicting indigenous-looking women with exaggerated hips and stomachs. Instead, it is a classically modeled tour de force performance of a hip-rotated, forearm-supported kneeling female that Rodin would have been proud to have claimed as his own. Francisco Zúñiga created sculpture as a boy when he assisted his father, a local sculptor of wooden santos. He turned decisively to sculpture after he arrived in Mexico from his native Costa Rica in 1936 and developed a wide-ranging body of work based on the figure that spanned direct carving in wood, modeling in clay, sculpting directly on hard stone, and bronze casting. "Desnundo Reclinado de Dolores" is a departure in that it neither reflects his interest in pre-Columbian art nor his persistence in depicting indigenous-looking women with exaggerated hips and stomachs. Instead, it is a classically modeled tour de force performance of a hip-rotated, forearm-supported kneeling female that Rodin would have been proud to have claimed as his own. Francisco Zúñiga created sculpture as a boy when he assisted his father, a local sculptor of wooden santos. He turned decisively to sculpture after he arrived in Mexico from his native Costa Rica in 1936 and developed a wide-ranging body of work based on the figure that spanned direct carving in wood, modeling in clay, sculpting directly on hard stone, and bronze casting. "Desnundo Reclinado de Dolores" is a departure in that it neither reflects his interest in pre-Columbian art nor his persistence in depicting indigenous-looking women with exaggerated hips and stomachs. Instead, it is a classically modeled tour de force performance of a hip-rotated, forearm-supported kneeling female that Rodin would have been proud to have claimed as his own. Francisco Zúñiga created sculpture as a boy when he assisted his father, a local sculptor of wooden santos. He turned decisively to sculpture after he arrived in Mexico from his native Costa Rica in 1936 and developed a wide-ranging body of work based on the figure that spanned direct carving in wood, modeling in clay, sculpting directly on hard stone, and bronze casting. "Desnundo Reclinado de Dolores" is a departure in that it neither reflects his interest in pre-Columbian art nor his persistence in depicting indigenous-looking women with exaggerated hips and stomachs. Instead, it is a classically modeled tour de force performance of a hip-rotated, forearm-supported kneeling female that Rodin would have been proud to have claimed as his own.
Desnudo reclinado de Dolores197621 x 43 1/4 x 21 1/2 in.(53.34 x 109.86 x 54.61 cm) bronze with green patina
Provenance
Tasende Gallery, La Jolla
Philip and Muriel Berman Collection, aqcuired 1977
Sotheby's New York. Latin American Art. 16 November - 17 November 2004 [Lot 37]
Larsen Art Auction: Saturday, October 21, 2017 [Lot 00206]
Private Collection, Huntington Beach
Literature
Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara Museum of Art; Tuscon, Tuscon Museum of Art; Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Art Center, Francisco Zuñiga: Sculpture and Drawing, 1972-1978, June 30, 1978-April 29, 1979, no. 12, p. 27, illustration of another cast
Carlos Francisco Echeverria, F...More...rancisco Zuníga, Mexico, Ediciones Galería de Arte Misrachi, 1980, no. 216-217, p. 202, illustration of another cast
Sheldon Reich, Francisco Zuñiga: Sculptor, Tuscon, The University of Arizona Press, 1980, no. 125, p. 133, illustration of another cast
Francisco Zúñiga, Catalogo Razonado/Catalogue Raisonné (1923-1993), Mexico City, Albedrío/Fundación Zúñiga Laborde, 1999, no. 769, p. 446, illustration of another cast
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Francisco Zúñiga created sculpture as a boy when he assisted his father, a local sculptor of wooden santos. He turned decisively to sculpture after he arrived in Mexico from his native Costa Rica in 1936 and developed a wide-ranging body of work based on the figure that spanned direct carving in wood, modeling in clay, sculpting directly on hard stone, and bronze casting. "Desnundo Reclinado de Dolores" is a departure in that it neither reflects his interest in pre-Columbian art nor his persistence in depicting indigenous-looking women with exaggerated hips and stomachs. Instead, it is a classically modeled tour de force performance of a hip-rotated, forearm-supported kneeling female that Rodin would have been proud to have claimed as his own.
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