Mexican (1905-2003)
Montoya was one of several Mexican artists who played a significant role in his own country’s art history when he espoused the new “Mexican” style, but is also hailed for his brief but significant work as a poster artist in Hollywood’s movie industry. A sensitive child, he began his art studies at the Academia de San Carlos when teachers such as Alfredo Ramos-Martinez were overturning European influence on Mexico’s culture and encouraging young artists to look at their own countrymen for subject matter. Montoya’s signature theme became the single child, centered in a vertical space, dressed in native clothing, and painted in bright, Latino colors. To a lesser extent he also created semi-abstracted still lifes that feature native Mexican foods, often breads and vegetables of his local area, and he also painted a series of gritty workers, very different in style, seemingly hewn into shape with a brush as if with an adz.