Pinar del Río, Cuba, 1953
Arturo Montoto commenced his initial studies at the School of Art in Pinar del Río, proceeding to intermediate level education at the National School of Art in Havana. He then enrolled at the Higher Institute of Arts in Havana, subsequently securing a scholarship for advanced studies at the V. I. Surikov Institute in Moscow, where he graduated with a Master of Fine Arts degree, specializing in Mural Painting, in 1984.
Throughout his professional career, Montoto has held over 40 solo exhibitions and numerous group shows in Cuba and abroad. He was invited to the 2005 and 2006 editions of the Latin American Painting and Sculpture Showcase held at the Espacio Gallery in El Salvador, alongside prominent Latin American artists. His works have been featured and referenced in a multitude of books and magazines. They are also frequently included in significant art-related events, such as international fairs and auctions. Montoto has published various texts and translations on art theory in journals like Dédalo and La Gaceta de Cuba. His artistic endeavors are consistently covered by the media, including print, radio, and television, through news, interviews, and reports. Radio and television programs in Cuba, such as Signos, La otra mirada, A capella, Arte video, among others, have dedicated segments to his work. Filmmakers like Roberto Chile, Yuder Laffita, Frank Becerra, Estrella Díaz, and Ernesto Granado Rigueiro have produced short films and promotional documentaries about his work.
Since 2005, Montoto has been creating bronze sculptures in Verona, Italy, and designing for the Frattelli Filippini firm for the production of exclusive jewelry in artist editions. For his work in Italy during these years, he received the Knight of the Order of the Italian Republic.
His works are housed in the collections of the Wifredo Lam Contemporary Art Center and the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana, the Lowe Art Museum in Florida, the Museum of Latin American Art (MoLAA) in Long Beach, California, the University of Virginia Museum in the United States, and the Vatican Museum in Rome, where his piece Aquí en la paz… was received by Pope John Paul II in 1999.
He has delivered lectures on his work and reflections on art at institutes, academies, and universities in Cuba and abroad. Montoto has served on juries for major fine arts salons and other events concerning contemporary Cuban art. In 2003, Letras Cubanas published Tántalo frente al estanque. La pintura de Arturo Montoto, a book by the art critic and theorist Rufo Caballero, as part of their Cuban Artists collection. In 2018, SLG Editions published a monograph of the artist by art critic David Mateo.
Montoto has been awarded the Distinction for National Culture and the Diploma for Artistic Merit for the significance of his work, conferred by the Higher Institute of Art in Havana. In 2007, he received the Consultant Professor category from this institution. In the same year, he was honored with the World Food Day medal by the FAO representation in Cuba for his contribution to the global fight against hunger.
Arturo Montoto by Arturo Montoto
My current work is the result of an exploration in the realm of pictorial visuality, shaped by post-Renaissance heritages and molded by the representational resources of Western tradition. I am particularly fascinated by the way historical Baroque unfolds its theatricality and converges in that zone of silence preserved by the Italian metaphysicians from their late medieval ancestors. The event, suspended in time, and the unfinished narrative, mark the space where shadows, defined by light, converge, pointing to an object of everyday insignificance - frugal and simple, yet unexpected and peculiar, but also hedonistic and at times ironic. My aim is for my work to transcend the mere aspect of naive belief in verist representation, drawing the spectator into a reflective space about the intentions of identifying the depicted with reality through the conventions of identity and resemblance in which we have been educated.
External Links
https://elartecubano.com/collections/arturo-montoto
https://onatefineart.com/artist/686-arturo-montoto/cv?ppage=48
https://www.artnet.com/artists/arturo-montoto/
https://www.invaluable.com/artist/montoto-arturo-d3ejuy82aq/
https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5139600
https://www.askart.com/artist/Arturo_Montoto/11163103/Arturo_Montoto.aspx
https://www.artealdia.com/Printed-Edition/87/Arturo_Montoto
https://www.elarbolrojoart.com/artists/producer/8-arturo-montoto
