Girl with Cherry Tart is a painting by Mexican artist Ángel Zárraga in 1922. Both its brushstroke and geometric figures allows us to ascribe this canvas to the Cubism. This oil painting depicts a young lady looking at a cherry pie in an intimate scene. The dominant tones cover the scale of red. The lady is watching the cake with her eyes closed in a proper position.
The Artist
The artist was part of the Group without a group [grupo sin grupo], as the art critic Teresa del Conde used to place him. This expression was coined by the writer Xavier Villarutia and it is due to the fact that it was very difficult to define the artistic movement Zárraga belonged to. What is true and can be said of his entire production is that he refused to create art with a politic or social theme.
Between the different styles he practiced, the Cubism was one of the most interesting. He had a prefect knowledge of the art movement as he had the possibility to study and appreciate it during his stay in Paris. The artist Pablo Picasso referred to him with this words: I had a Mexican friend who I loved very much. An intelligent, fine and knowledgeable man. He was even a painter [...] Ángel Zárraga. A gentleman.
When Ángel Zárraga died in 1946, the writer Salvador Novo wrote in his column Novedades [News]: He was characterized by an European prestige, even greater when he came back[...] He made no concessions to the art tendencies he found when he came back to his country.
The painter returned to Mexico in 1941 sent to the inhabitants of Durango, his original city, a message: My friends, people from Durango, this faith of mine, this hope of mine, are the only gift I bring to you, because my works on canvas and walls are despicable things and therefore perishable. What is immortal, are the faith and the hope in my Indian Mexico, Spanish and catholic, and in my Indian Durango, Basque and catholic.