Paintings by Ángel Zárraga
Ángel Zárraga y Argūelies was born in 1886 in the Barrio de Analco of Durango, Mexico. He attended the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria in Mexico City and the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes. In 1904 with the help of his family, Zárraga made a study trip to Europe, where he visited and exhibited in Spain, France, and Italy. He also attended courses at the Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium.
In 1906 Zárraga exhibited some of his paintings in the Museo del Prado. Thirty of his paintings were exhibited in 1907 at Mexico City’s Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes, two of which were purchased by the government. In 1909 Zárraga exhibited his work at the International Exhibition in Munich. During the same year, he exhibited in the Salon at the Piazzale Donatello in Florence and also participated at the Biennale di Venezia.
In 1910 Zárraga exhibited at the International in Rome and while in Rome, painted a portrait of the Baroness Lombroso. He sent a group of twenty-five finished canvases to Mexico in 1910, selling four to the Mexican government and four to private collectors.
Ángel Zárraga, upon his return to Europe in 1911, decided to call Paris his home. From 1914 to 1921, his work was in a Cubist style, but after 1921 his work became influenced by the painting styles of Paul Cézanne and Italian painter Giotto di Bondone.
In Paris, Zárraga painted a succession of murals at the Château de Vert-Cœur; in the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris: and at the Mexican Embassy. He also exhibited his paintings at the Salon d’Automne, an annual Parisian art exhibition at the Grand Palais.
In 1941 with the outbreak of World War II, Zárraga returned to his home country of Mexico, where he painted murals at the Club de Banqueros and in Monterrey Cathedral, the main Catholic church and the home of the Archdiocese of Monterrey.. Ángel Zárraga died of pneumonia on September 22, 1946.