Reviews of the works and exhibitions of Fernando Montes

Reviews

Fernando Montes is a Bolivian artist who has continually depicted with a deep sympathy the natural landscape of Bolivia and the indigenous Indians who cleave to mother earth and life itself.

One could easily view his work as a fruit of the Indigenismo Movement (one of the local Central American artistic schools using themes drawn from that region in its own characteristic style), but such an understanding would only give a partial understanding of Fernando Montes’ art. Many admirers of his works including myself discern a hymn of life and love for the land of Bolivia running through his creations, transcending such simplistic approaches to classification

Jo Ishida, Art Director, Art Forum JARFO, Kyoto, Japan

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“True art has no geographic, historical or national boundaries, true art is universal and belongs to all mankind. So it is with the painting of Fernando Montes: it observes the wide and boundless Bolivian plateau where the

artist was born and spent his childhood and youth, but then it frees itself from the habitual spaces of life to become the fascinating mirror of the human mind which, astounded, contemplates itself in the dark profiles of the Indians and in the infinite expanse of the sky. In this way the pictures become a window on the infinite, charged with an indescribable gentleness which speaks to us in the language of nostalgia and which compels us to reflect anxiously on the immensity of space.”

Roberto Durighetto. Introduction to the catalogue of the exhibition at the Venice Museo Diocessano d’Arte Sacra.

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“Linked by a fluid circular movement of line, the figures are closely interrelated and nestled together and with this gesture of love they seem to be preserving the warmth that originates in the hearth. In the centre of this family group which is conceived in an almost religious way so as to resemble a Hoy Family, the pallid sky melts in the mysterious distance. All is rendered in so reserved and subdued ways that the poetry of the work needs to be contemplated and enjoyed with a corresponding humble and watchful gentleness.”

Roberto Durighetto. Introduction to the catalogue of the exhibition at the Venice
Museo Diocessano d’Arte Sacra.

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“Silently and introvertedly they experience existence, they embody the most elementary life in a light which conjures infinity, but at the same time brings near the far off as reflected light. It is undoubtedly a special and convincing encounter with an artist who has something to tell us”

Hans Redeker, C.J., Amsterdam

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“Fernando Montes of Bolivia with rusty tonalities that seem to have sprung from entrails of the Bolivian earth presented figures, houses, and views from the La Paz Altiplano.

Art of the Americas Bulletin, Washington DC

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Fernando Montes is an artist who incessantly paints images of indigenous people who believe in earth and life, and of nature in Bolivia, to which he is deeply attached. It would not be difficult to link his work to the Indigenist Movement present in Latin American art during the 20th century. However, that would be a partial view. Not few among Montes’ admirers, here I include myself, can feel the hymn of love and life to the Bolivian soil emanating from his paintings, beyond their first impressions”.

Jo Ishida, Director of Japan Art Forum (JARFO), Kyoto, Japan.

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“Fernando Montes has long been fascinated with the human figure, his renderings are somewhat between Rafael and Moore: the mysticism of the mother figure coupled with the earthiness of humanity”.

Helen de Borchgrave, Arts Review, London

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“Silence among the ruins of a civilisation barely uncovered in archaeological encounters with a fantastic and solemn architecture, in which the Inca Empire expressed its might and wealth, above all in the development of an art almost exterminated by merciless wars of conquest. Montes is a very proficient draughtsman and his distinctive marks illuminate the image after having constructed it respecting the canons of design and volume”.

Tommaso Paloscia, La Nazione, Florence

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“His work is monochrome in appearance, illustrating the most silent encounters of prayer and contemplation. His characters sit in an attitude of prayer”.

Prof. Giorgio Mascherpa, Avvenire, Milan

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« Fernando Montes is one of the most prominent personalities of the exhibition, shaping his dark and massive figures as stone blocks of eroded contours, which stand against the grey and ochre immensity of the Andean landscape”.

Geneviève Breerette, Le Monde, Paris.

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“The paintings by Montes beyond the individual climate are excellent pieces of poetry of an important link between the human being and the earth.”

Keinosuke Murata, Former Director of the National Museum of International Art, Osaka, Japan”

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“In the painting of Fernando Montes there is a sense of great solitude which envelopes the figures and landscapes. Immeasurable heights, unexplored silences, skies without reflection, thoughts undulating in the immensity of the cosmos. According to the Bolivian painter, his encounter with the magic city of Machu Picchu marked a deep change in his work. From that encounter some extremely beautiful canvases were born.”

Professor Marco Goldin, from the introduction to the exhibition in the Italo-Latin American Institute, Rome.

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“The painting is based in essence more than in presence, where less is more”

Professor Marco Goldin, from the introduction to the exhibition in the Italo-Latin American Institute, Rome.

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