Sofía Bassi

Sofía Bassi (July 28, 1913 – September 11, 1998) was a Mexican painter and writer noted for her surrealist work as well as her personal life, which included five years in prison for murder. She maintained an active career despite incarceration, painting her first mural in prison in Acapulco, with the assistance of Alberto Gironella, José Luis Cuevas, Rafael Coronel and Francisco Corzas. This mural can now be found at the municipal building of the city.

Life Bassi was born in Ciudad Camerino Mendoza, Veracruz, a town named after her uncle, who served in the Mexican Revolution. Her original name was Sofía Celorio Mendoza, changing it later for artistic purposes.

She studied philosophy at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México for two years. However, in 1964 she began to teach herself how to paint.

Bassi was married twice. Her first marriage was when she was very young and ended in divorce after producing her first two children, Hadelin and Claire Diericx. Her second marriage was to Jean Franco Bassi, who was descended from Mexican nobility. This union produced her third child, Franco. About twelve years before her death, she designed and painted a fiberglass "egg-sarcophagus" to be used for her funeral. She considered the egg as a sign of fertility and rebirth, an image of such appears in a painting she did for NASA . Which translates as "She was still painting until two weeks ago in her house in las Lomas de Chapultepec, she was in good spirits and not sick, her death was due to old age."

Career Bassi began to teach herself to paint, with her husband's encouragement. She painted anthropomorphic landscapes representing lost continents and cities, sometimes being surrounded by the arms of oceans and inspired the film Trampa para una nina filmed in Guatemala and directed by Ismael Rodriguez .