Emilio Sánchez

Emilio Sánchez was born in Cuba in 1921. He began his art studies moving to New York City, where he lived until his death in 1999, to study at the Art Students League in 1944. It was in Cuba, however, where he experimented with light and shadow on colors that soon became a notable aspect of his works. His early works from the 1950s present themes such as portraits of friends and models, and landscapes of New York and the tropics.

During the 1960s, his works leaned towards the abstract, when he began to develop his well-known paintings of architecture. These architectural works stand out for their minimalism, where most details are eliminated, and for their use of color, which gives the works a strong presence. He continued exploring architecture by traveling to the Mediterranean. In addition to his works based on architecture, he explored a variety of themes, such as still-life works of fruits and flowers, sailboats, clotheslines and sunsets over the Hudson River. These very different works demonstrate his versatility in presenting amorphous shapes. In the 1990s Sanchez's attention focused more on New York urban scenes of storefronts, garages and skyscrapers.

Sánchez had a long career, featuring over sixty solo exhibitions and participation in numerous group shows in museums and galleries throughout the United States, Latin America and Europe. His art is also present in private and public collections, and a total of over thirty museums, including the New York Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He also received prestigious awards, such as first prize at the 1974 Biennial in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Source: Arte Foundation