Valeta Swann (Eastbourne, Sussex, England, 1904 – Mexico City, 1973) showed a natural talent for drawing from a young age. Although her mother always opposed it, she managed to take classes with Helen Urquhart at the age of sixteen, and continued her studies at the local Fine Arts school. In 1927, she married Eric Swanny and moved to London. She then attended the Warwick Art School and later the Central School of Art. 

In 1930, she exhibited her work in London and Paris, before traveling to North America in 1939 with her second husband, anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski, who was invited to work at Yale University. She accompanied him through the United States and Mexico during his research on the bartering system in markets, where she contributed with photographs and paintings. This marked the beginning of her work, which was characterized by a personal perspective of vivid colors and luminosity, giving her artwork a unique trait that, apart from impressionism and pointillism, was born from her own intuition. In 1945, she exhibited at the Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts) and subsequently held more than fifty exhibitions in Mexico, Europe, and the United States. She became known for painting portable murals, such as Sinfonía Cósmica (1960).