Armando Morales was born in Granada, Nicaragua on January 15, 1927, the youngest of six children of a family deeply rooted in religion. Two years later, the family moved to Managua, the Capital, where there were greater opportunities for his father to expand his hardware business. Since Early childhood Armando showed a great interest in art. Morales’ skill for drawing did not go unnoticed by his teachers. One of them in particular, who taught arithmetic, grammar and painting, frequently praised his paintings while turning a blind eye to his laziness in other subjects. By this time, painting ceased to be only a school activity: He also painted at home on his return from school. Around 1938, he painted realistically some imaginary landscapes with Morales regards as the true beginning of his artistic career. The School of Fine Arts of Managua had a rigorous academic curriculum. The first year was dedicated to drawing with charcoal, and later with crayon, inanimate models of wood and plaster, as well as all kinds of cloth. Perspective, history of art and anatomy was taught during the second year and, while still working with crayon and charcoal, live models were introduced. It was not until the third year that Morales would fulfill his childhood dreams of painting in oils. In 1956, he participated in the Central American Painting Contest “15 de Septiembre” held in Guatemala and won first prize with his painting Spook-Tree. This painting was later bought buy the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 1957, the exhibition “Six Nicaraguan Artists” was inaugurated in Washington. Morales Received excellent reviews and sold all the paintings with which he had participated. In 1970 he painted lush and sensual fruits, heavy and voluptuous apple and pears that evoked the softness of human skin, from which there was the obvious transition to the painting of nudes. In his 1971 Exhibition at the Galeria Bonino in New York, he showed a series of stunning nudes; the fine detail of every muscle, every inch of skin revealing an unsurpassed sensuality. In 1977, he returned to the work of lithographs, having made several editions in New York and Berlin. He produced a series in black & white for Herbert Kassner of Lithographic Editions at the Kryon Editions Workshop Mexico City. In 1993, he completed a portfolio of lithographs entitled The Saga of Sandino at the workshop of Artegrafias Limitadas, S.A. in Mexico City. Sandino was a Nicaraguan national hero whom Morales remembered seeing in Managua during his childhood. While in Mexico City, he also finished a portrait of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. A year later, the lithographs were exhibited at the Rufino Tamayo Museum in Mexico City and at the Institute of Graphic Arts in Oaxaca, where Morales also Held a conference on the occasion of the exhibition. He then went to Guadalajara for the inauguration of the Julio Cartazar Chair at the University of Jalisco. He was also Appointed juror for the Exposicion Pinturerias organized by the Cultural Foundation Artencion, Mexico City. Source: Rogallery.com