Zalathiel Vargas Art for Sale at Auction

Comiczeichner, Sculptor, Painter

Zalathiel Vargas (born 1941) is a Mexican artist best known for his work in underground comix and illustrations. His work follows a number of the characteristics of comix including explicit sexuality and psychedelic imagery, but is distinguished by influence from Mexican “photo-novels” and strong social and political messages. His work has been exhibited in Mexico and abroad in venues such as the Palacio de Bellas Artes and the Museo de Arte Moderno as well as a retrospective at the Museo Universitario del Chopo of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

Zalathiel Vargas was born in Mexico City in 1941.[1] His father was a carpenter. He grew up in the historic center of Mexico City. During his middle school years, he worked in a print shop. On the leftover paper he drew images from the surrounding La Merced neighborhood.[2]

He originally wanted to be a physicist and mathematician but at age fourteen he enrolled in a painting course with the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas as a hobby. As soon as he began creating, he was hooked and graduated from the school in 1963.[3][4]

In his youth, he was a militant with the Mexican Communist Party. At the Academy of San Carlos he and other artists hung a huge portrait of Fidel Castro on the building but authorities made them take it down. He visited Cuba in 1961 and met Che Guevara .[3] He still identifies with the politics of the Mexican left.[4]

In 1965 he received a scholarship from the French government to participate in William Hayter’s experimental engraving workshop, Atelier 17 in Paris, working there for two years while attending the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts .[1][5] Hayter advised Vargas to travel during his stay in Paris and Vargas biked around Europe and as far as Jerusalem.[3]

Vargas continues to live and work in Mexico City, with a studio in the house where he was born.