Alfredo Zalce was born January 12, 1908 in Patzcuaro, Michoacan, Mexico. He passed away in 2003 and was one of the leading figures of modern Mexican art. His most beloved themes are Morelia's landscape, rural markets, mestiza women and native fauna.
Zalce was born in one of the lushest parts of Mexico, at its most famous lake (Pátzcuaro) and he worked primarily in a lush, subtropical environment of Morelia and most of his art reflects those physical qualities.

His father and mother were both professional photographers. Zalce attended elementary and high school in Mexico City; during these years he also helped his parents develop film. He studied art (supporting himself as a photographer) at the Escuela Central de Artes Plásticas, which later was to be named the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes. At the age of 20 his works were exhibited in the Mexican pavilion of the Exposición de Artes e Industrias, Seville, Spain (1928), where he won second place in the category of painting.

In 1930 the Mexican government gave him the assignment to found a painting school in Taxco, Guerrero. In 1931 he began attending the lithography workshop of Emilio Amero together with other artists including Carlos Orozco Romero, Carlos Mérida, and Francisco Dosamantes, and he has produced numerous lithographs dating from that year. In 1932 he became an art teacher working for the Mexican Secretariat of Public Education and he completed two al fresco murals at two separate public schools.

His first one-man show (both graphic arts and painting) was in 1932 at the Sala de Arte de la Secretaría de Educación Pública. The following year he exhibited in Chicago.

Zalce was a very active member of politically-progressive groups including the Liga de Escritores y Artistas Revolucionarios (League of Revolutionary Writers and Artists, 1933-dissolved in 1937), and in 1937 he was one of the cofounders of the Taller de Gráfica Popular (Workshop of the People's Graphics), together with other important artists including Leopoldo Méndez (1902-1969), Pablo O'Higgins (1904-1983), and Luis Arenal (b. 1908).

Between 1937-1950, Zalce painted four murals on the walls of schools in the states of Colima, Puebla, Michoacán, and in Mexico City. In 1945 he completed one of his most famous works, the portfolio Estampas de Yucatán after spending four months in southern Mexico. In 1948 he had a major exhibition at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes that was subsequently offered in his home state of Michoacán at the Museo Michoacano de Morelia.

In 1950 he became the director of the Escuela Popular de Bellas Artes de Morelia (sponsored by the University of Michoacán) and the Escuela de Pintura y Artesanías de Morelia (sponsored by the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes). He has worked primarily in Morelia from that date. In the 1950s he completed major commissions including the Chamber of Deputies of the State of Michoacán and the City Hall of Morelia.

In 1960, seventeen of his prints formed part of the collective exhibition of the TGP, "450 años de lucha. Homenaje al pueblo mexicano." In 1981, the Museo de Arte Moderno de Chapultepec (Mexico City) had a major retrospective celebrating 50 years of his work in which were exhibited 200 works of painting, sculpture, textiles, drawings, and graphics.

Alfredo Zalce was over 94 years of age, he was a diminutive bundle of talent and never-ending energy that directed toward his love of life and his daily routine of producing art. Zalce was consumed with art since his infancy and was one of the few artists that have continued painting, rather than dedicating himself to abstract art of questionable integrity.

When Ernesto Zedillo, President of Mexico, went to the Vatican in 1996 to visit the Pope, he selected only one thing to take to the Pope as a gift from Mexico. With great pleasure, the Pope received an acrylic of a Mexican town, painted by Alfredo Zalce.

Zalce was one of the last living legends of art in Mexico. Among his peers and friends have been Orozco, Rivera, Siquieros, Tamayo, Kahlo, and O'Higgins. They have all passed away. Zalce related numerous memories and humorous antidotes about them, and of artistic passions and friendly times that he shared with them. But a difference between the majority of other artists and Zalce is that Zalce had no interest in the fame or in the numerous responsibilities that are required of people in the public eye. He had avoided publicity throughout his life, and in 1990, and another time in 1998, he gratefully refused the highest honor for artists in Mexico, the National Premium of Art, so that someone more interested in the benefits of promotion and raising the price of their art could be awarded the honor.

It is increasingly difficult to acquire works of Zalce, and when they do become available they are immediately grabbed-up by art lovers and collectors; including many well-known celebrities. Rarely did Zalce permit his art to be sold in galleries because he doesn't require the promotion that galleries give to their stable of artists, and because he felt that most galleries elevate the price of the art they sell to unrealistic levels.

His shows and exhibitions have been seen in every major city of the free world. In Mexico City his giant murals contribute to the atmosphere of the Museum of Anthropology and the Procuraduria General de la Republica. His works constitute a part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, along with some ten other of Mexico?s greatest artists, but the main volume of his permanent works are found in his native state of Michoacan, where in Morelia the Museum of Contemporary Art was renamed by the government and is now the "Alfredo Zalce Museum of Contemporary Art." Furthermore, his works have been incorporated in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in United States, the Museum of La Jolla in California, the Museum of Stockholm (Sweden), the Museum of Varsovia (Poland), and the National Museum of Bulgaria, to mention a few.

Zalce had to produce art. When he was not producing art, he felt his time had been wasted. He was considered by many to be the most versatile artist ever to live in Mexico, and he was equally comfortable producing murals, batiks, sculptures, watercolors, oils or acrylics, monotypes, tapestries, or drawings in pencil or ink. The majority of his work is of a Mexican orientation.

For Zalce, any object became an irresistible model, which he could reproduce with the perfection of a photograph or in his own style. He never had specialized in a theme such as the human figure, mountains, or landscapes, but paints all with equal mastery. He had never repeated a work of art a second time.

In recent years, Maestro Zalce had started producing works in batik, a skill previously used mostly to produce rich designs on fabric. Since he had started producing fine art in batik, due to his prestige, techniques of batik have become elevated to prominence as "high art."

Enrique Beraha Misrachi (Galeras de Arte Misrachi) said: Zalce puts us in contact with our history. Painter, sculptor, lithographer, and muralist, Zalce has proved to be a great master in all branches of art.

Dr. Jose Valadez (Art Critic) said: Alfredo Zalce is a living legend. He is the last of a very special breed. He has contributed to the beauty of Mexico, and is a part of the history of Mexico.

Associated American Artists (AAA) Publishers
Smithsonian Museum from their exhibition 150 Years of Print Collecting honors AAA's history with the following statement: "Beyond an interest in historical Americana, 20th-century print collectors have sought the works of living artists, images that reflect social issues, regionalism, realism, and abstraction. The popularity of etchings increased dramatically during the 1880s and again in the 1920s, and original prints came into many homes through collectors' club exchanges and exhibitions. Literature for collectors appeared, including periodicals designed to educate wider audiences. Associated American Artists, founded in 1934, aggressively marketed current prints through department stores, exhibitions, and gallery sales, and by mail order. These changes in production and marketing methods indicate the 20th-century growth of art as an industry."