José Zaragoza

Born in Barcelona in 1930. He devoted himself to art from the age of fourteen, when he began attending the School of Art for Young People directed by Angela Rosado. Two years later, in 1946, he entered the School of Arts and Crafts, also in Barcelona. At eighteen he applied to the La Llotja School of Fine Arts and was accepted after passing the entrance test in drawing and printmaking. He worked at Gráfica Manen, creating illustrations for stories, film posters and book covers.

Obliged to do military service, he had to suspend his studies against his own wishes and those of his teachers. In 1952, angered by the political situation in Franco's Spain and by the two years of fine-art study he had lost, he decided to come to Brazil. Here he began making illustrations for advertisements and working as a designer. He returned to painting, taking part in two exhibitions at the Galeria Prestes Maia and at FAAP. He also took part in three São Paulo Biennials, the 2nd Havana Biennial in Cuba, and the 2nd Probel Prize at the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo. He exhibited in Paris, New York, Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, Lisbon, London, The Hague, Ludwigshafen and in Tokyo and Shizuoka, as well as in Brazil's major cities — fifty-nine exhibitions in all.

In 1999 he took on the challenge of making a feature film about São Paulo, Até que a Vida nos Separe. He served on the board of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo and of the Sociedade de Cultura Artística.