Sarah Jimenez Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1927 - d. 2017

Sarah Jimenez Vernis (February 3, 1927 – March 13, 2017) was a Mexican artist known for her political graphic work in the mid 20th century, especially with the Taller de Gráfica Popular, earning her membership in the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana. After her time with the Taller, her career shifted to teaching, and her work became mostly forgotten. However, there have been efforts to revive interest in it.

Jiménez Vernís was born on February 3, 1927 in Piedras Negras, Coahuila in the north of Mexico.[1][2] She spent her first years growing up there, near the United States border until her family moved to Córdoba, Veracruz, where she received her primary and middle school education at the Escuela de Artes y Oficios.[3]

Her father, José Guadalupe Jiménez, was a doctor with Mexico’s railroad system and participated in the Mexican Revolution. He met her mother, Sarah Vernís, on a train during the war. He served as a medic for the Carranza army. The couple had seven children, Alfonso, Alberto, Guadalupe, Concepción, Mario and Ofelia, along with Sarah.[1][3]

Jiménez Vernís began drawing while in middle school and also learned to play the piano. Her father called her “my little pot painter.”[3]

She moved to Mexico City in 1947 to live with an aunt and a paternal grandmother. At first her father required her to study business and shorthand for three years, but then she transferred to the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda" to study art, staying there until 1953. Her teachers included Nefero, Santos Balmori, Isidoro Ocampo, Fernando Castro Pacheco, Erasto Cortés Juárez, Agustín Lazo, Arturo Estrada Hernández and Raúl Anguiano. The last left his class to her when he went to Europe.[1][2][3] Her classmates included Ignacio Aguirre, Luis Arenal Bastar, Alberto Beltrán, Ángel Bracho, Arturo Garcia Bustos, Leopoldo Méndez and Andrea Gómez.[3]

Jiménez Vernís traveled extensively in Mexico as well as to Yugoslavia and Italy. She was invited to the former Soviet Union twice in 1967 and 1974 to accompany Leopoldo Mendez’s portable mural.[3][4]

She lived in a small home near the Monumento a La Raza in Mexico City.[1] She died on March 13, 2017 at the age of 90.