LOS ANGELES, CA.-Jack Rutberg Fine Arts in Los Angeles is presenting a formidable exhibition of works by the major Mexican 20th century artist and sculptor Francisco Zuñiga (b. Costa Rica 1912 - d. Mexico 1998), opening on Saturday, September 29, and extending through Saturday, December 22, 2007. The exhibition, Francisco Zuñiga: Woman as Icon, opens with a preview reception Saturday, September 29 from 6:00 to 9:00 pm. Ariel Zuniga, the artist’s son and biographer, will be in attendance.

This ambitious exhibition of Zuniga works features important sculpture, drawings and watercolors. Highlights include one of the few exceedingly rare sculptures in wood by the artist entitled Mother with Child at her Hip, 1982, offered for the first time. Also included is one of Zuniga’s classic works – a rare marble sculpture, and a larger-than-life-sized bronze, Juchiteca Sentada of 1974, in addition to nearly 30 masterful drawings and watercolors which affirm Zuniga’s recognition as one of the greatest draftsmen of the human figure.

This museum quality exhibition is accompanied by the newly published Volumes III and IV of Francisco Zuniga, A Catalogue Raisonné, documenting the artist’s body of work, edited and written by Ariel Zuniga, son and biographer of the artist, and head of the Zuniga Foundation. This new two-volume set with nearly 4,000 illustrations is dedicated to the artist’s drawings and watercolors.

Zuniga's monumental works celebrate the female form as an elemental force; sometimes maternal, often sensual, but always heroic. These sculptures and drawings of women - as matriarch or adolescent - have today become powerful and iconic images. Worldwide recognition of Francisco Zuniga continues to assert itself as evidenced by the recent world-record setting prices recently achieved at international auctions.

Born in Costa Rica, Francisco Zuniga moved to Mexico in 1936, where his work increasingly gained wide recognition throughout Latin America, Europe, Asia and the United States. Monumental sculptures by Zuniga are included in the collections of museums internationally. Among the museums in which Zuniga’s works are included are the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; UCLA Sculpture Gardens; USC; Santa Barbara Museum of Art; San Diego Museum of Art; Phoenix Museum of Art; Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University; Costa Rican Art Museum; Museum of Modern Art, Mexico; Latin American Museum of Art, Buenos Aires; and Middleheim Sculpture Garden, Antwerp. The Estate of Francisco Zuniga is represented by Jack Rutberg Fine Arts.

Related educational programs will be presented by the gallery including. Dates will be forthcoming.