|
|
This artist from a well-to-do family of Porfirian times studied in the National School of Fine Arts along with Diego Rivera and Saturnino Herrán. In 1904 he visited Europe, specially France where he completely embraced the ideas of Cézanne and Giotto. He painted murals in the Castle of Vert Coeur and in 1927 he received the Légion d'Honneur. He exhibited in New York, but with the Great Depression and the collapse of the international art market, Zárraga lost patrons and friends. He went through an existance crisis and took refuge in mystical and religious subjects, and painted murals in the Citè Universitaire of Paris. After his return to Mexico in 1941, he painted the murals of the Monterrey Cathedral. He died of pneumonia in 1946, leaving the murals planned for the Biblioteca Mexico unfinished.