Painter in egg tempera, born in La Paz, Bolivia. He studied under Vicente Puig in Buenos Aires, in 1959 gained a scholarship from the Spanish government to study at the San Fernando School of Fine Arts in Madrid and in 1960 moved to London, attending St Martin’s and Central Schools of Art. Montes’ first professional arts activity was in films, as one of a three-man pioneering group that made some of the first Bolivian films. In 1959 he represented Bolivia at the 5th São Paulo Bienal and in 1977 was awarded the first prize in painting at the 2nd IMBO Bienal. In 1993 he was elected academician of the Accademia Archeologica Italiana, Rome. Montes said that his work was inspired by “the relationship of Man and Earth as you see it in the High Andes”.
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He was widely reviewed in the international press and on television and radio, and was included in many mixed shows. Among later ones were RA Summer Exhibition, 2000; Korean International Art Fair, Seoul, 2003; and Latin Americian Art, Sainsbury Centre, Norwich, 2004. In 1999, he represented Bolivia in the 48 Venice Biennial, the year that Santillana Editions SA published Fernando Montes, Works, 1957–1999. Over two dozen solo exhibitions included Galeria Municipal, La Paz, from 1956; St Martin’s Gallery, 1965; Upper Grosvenor Galleries, 1968; Madden Galleries, 1975; Azabu Museum in Tokyo and Awano Sato Forum, both 1994; Gallery Hana and Japan Art Forum, both in Kyoto, 2000; Bruton Street Gallery, 2001; Shimada Gallery, Kobe, 2002; and Galerie GNG, Paris, 2003. Retrospective at Mall Galleries, 2006. National Museum in La Paz; Bolivian Embassy; and Museum of Modern Art, Austin, Texas, hold examples. Lived in London.
Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)
