Armando Morales, the master Nicaraguan artist, died on November 16, 2011 in Miami, Florida at the age of 84. AMA | Art Museum of the Americas of the OAS is proud to have 23 of his works in the permanent collection.

Born in Nicaragua in 1927, Morales began painting at the age of 11 and went on to become one of the most important figures in the neo-figuration style in Latin America. He worked at the same time as other Latin American greats such as Obregón and Szyszlo.

Felix Angel wrote of Morales, “Studying in Managua under Rodrigo Penalba, [Morales] acquired a profound understanding of color. So complete in his control of tonal variations that one may say that color, handled with the greatest of subtlety and refinement, is the essence of his art.”

In 1957, Morales participated in a group show at our museum. This was written in 1962 about it, preceding his solo show at our museum entitled Armando Morales of Nicaragua: Oils, “…the figure of greatest significance to emerge from that exhibition was that of Armando Morales, both because of his intrinsically high quality of his work and because of the strikingly individual personality which it revealed.”

Below are two selections from our collection of work by Armando Morales: