Virgilio Méndez, Arist, Sculptor, Painter

Virgilio Méndez was born in Santo Domingo in 1941, and died in La Romana in 2003. Between 1954 and 1956, he studies at the Politécnico Loyola de San Cristóbal, at the time hoping to become a priest.

In 1958, at the age of seventeen, he enrolls at the Nacional School of Fine Arts in Santo Domingo, where he earns a diploma as professor of drawing in 1962. At ENBA, he has the opportunity to be a student of three greats of Dominican arts, Jaime Colson,  Hernandez Ortega and Domingo Liz.

In 1963, Méndez is selected by Jaime Colson as an assistant in the mural workshop at ENBA. In this same year, he is named a professor at the School of Fine Arts in San Francisco de Macoris, a position which only last for few months, as Méndez receives a scholarship to study at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Spain.

In 1965, he returns to Santo Domingo, join the recent artistic movement taking place in the Colonial Zone. During this time he befirends fellow artists Gilberto Hernández Ortega, Tomás López Ramos, Julio Susana and Roberto Flores.

During the 70s, 80s and 90s, Virgilio Méndez participates in many joint and solo exhibitions throughout the Dominican Republic.

In 2001, he creates a bust of Juan Pablo Duarte for the central park of La Romana, Republic
Dominican.

Many of Virgilio Méndez's works of art are now a part of the Museo Bellapart in Santo Domingo.