Armando Morales

(Nicaraguan, 1927–2011)

Armando Morales was a Nicaraguan figurative painter considered one of the most important artist in his country’s history. Primarily depicting fruit still lifes, tropical landscapes, and the female nude, his paintings melded expressive handling with neutral tones and voluminous forms. Born on January 15, 1927 in Granada, Nicaragua, Morales received his formal training at National Academy of Fine Arts in Managua where he learned to paint in an academic style. In 1956, Morales won first prize in the Central American Painting Contest “15 de Septiembre” with his work Spook-Tree (1956), which was later purchased by The Museum of Modern Art in New York. After briefly living in the United States, he returned to Central America in 1976, eventually settling in Costa Rica as Nicaragua was in political upheaval. In 1993, the painter notably produced a portrait of the famed author Gabriel García Márquez while visiting Mexico City. Morales died on November 16, 2011 in Miami, FL. Today, his works are held in the collections of the Harvard Art Museums in Cambridge, the Art Museum of the Americas in Washington, D.C., and the Princeton University Art Museum in New Jersey, among others.