Having fought against Franco's forces in the Spanish Civil War, Eugenio Granell spent eleven years of exile in Latin America and the Caribbean before settling in Puerto Rico in January, 1950. Invited by the University rector, Jaime Benítez, Granell served as the arts professor at The University of Puerto Rico (1950-59), where he imparted his surrealist vision to the most audacious students in the department.

Zeno was one of Granell's first and most outstanding pupils. This painting was produced shortly after she began her studies at the University, and is the finest example in a series of intensely-coloured, metaphysical works that explore space and structure, and the place of human beings within these contexts. Granell wrote that Zeno's colours "when they pass(ed) from the palette to canvas or paper, underwent an alchemical metamorphosis."