Chilean painter and printmaker Enrique Zañartu was born in Paris on September 6, 1921.  He moved to his native Chile in 1938 and trained as a painter and draftsman.

Visiting New York in 1944 he decided to study with Stanley W. Hayter at Atelier 17 and he eventually became associate director until 1949. He relocated to Paris and directed the Paris Atelier 17 from 1950 to 1957. Zañartu was a professor at several universities where he taught printmaking, painting and drawing. While in Paris he met and married the fiber artist, Sheila Hicks, in 1965.

Zañartu had numerous solo exhibitions in Chile, Germany, Peru, France, Germany and the United States. He received the Guggenheim International Award in USA in 1958 and the Critics Award in Santiago, Chile in 1963.

His works are held in museum collections worldwide including but not limited to the Centre Georges Pompidou, Art Institute of Chicago, British Museum, Dallas Museum of Art, Harvard Art Museums, Kemper Art Museum, Museum of Modern Art New York, New York Public Library, Oldenburg Museum, Yale University Museum, and the Weatherspoon Art Museum.

Zañartu died in Paris in June of 2000.