Emilio Sanchez (artist)

Emilio Sánchez Fonts was born in Camagüey, Cuba, in 1921, to Estrella Fonts and Emilio Sánchez. The grandson of sugar entrepreneur Bernabé Sánchez Adan and a member of one of Cuba's oldest and wealthiest families, Sanchez's early life was one of privilege. As a child, he was tutored at home on his father's sugar plantation in central Cuba, where he was encouraged to draw by his grandmother. After his parents divorced, his mother married Peruvian artist Felipe Cossío del Pomar in 1938 and moved to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Sánchez then divided his time between Mexico, his father's Cuban estate, and American schools. He attended Yale University and, from 1941–1943, the University of Virginia. Encouraged to pursue art by Cossío del Pomar, Sánchez moved to New York City in 1944 to attend the Art Students League. He later studied watercolor painting under Dong Kingman at Columbia University School of the Arts. During the late 1940s, he developed an interest in Mexican colonial architecture as well as Pre-Columbian Art and illustrated two books on Peruvian Art written by Cossío del Pomar. Although he moved permanently to New York City in 1952, Sánchez continued to visit the Caribbean, where he often photographed scenes as references for his art. In the mid-1950s, he began experimenting with printmaking techniques such as lithography, woodcut, and aquatint. == Career ==

In 1956, Sanchez's solo watercolor exhibition at Peridot Gallery (New York NY) of figurative New York or Caribbean street scenes was reviewed favorably by Stuart Preston of The New York Times. His 1956 solo show at El Lyceum (Havana, Cuba) led to his association with Galeria Cubana de Pintura y Escultura and group exhibitions in Venezuela and Columbia. Although Sanchez did not return to Cuba after 1960, he continued to exhibit in biennials throughout Central and South America. At this time solo exhibitions of his work were held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Madrid, Spain, as well as in Houston, New Orleans, and New York. At this time solo exhibitions of his work were held throughout Latin America at the Museo Bellas Artes (Caracas, Venezuela), La Tertulia Museum (Cali, Colombia), Museo de Arte de Ponce (Ponce, Puerto Rico), as well as the Center for Inter-American Relations (New York NY). By the late 1980s, he turned his attention to New York scenes and depicted Bronx bodegas, storefronts, and garages as solid blocks of color. Since his death, solo exhibitions of Sanchez's work were noted at the Bronx Museum in 2001; at Boston City Hall in 2009; and at Syracuse University Art Galleries in 2011. Exhibitions of his work were held in 2012 at Saint Joseph College (Hartford CA), and the University of Virginia's Fralin Museum of Art, as well as in 2013 at the University of Oregon's Museum of Art, the University of Michigan, Indiana University, and the Museo de Arte de Ponce (Ponce, Puerto Rico). == Recognition and contribution ==

Sanchez's paintings and prints drew the attention of both the public and critics as early as 1958. He was also recognized internationally and was awarded first prize at the 1974 Biennial in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Although Sanchez's work is important within American Hispanic art, For art historian John Angeline, his work also evoked the paintings of Charles Sheeler and extended "Precisionism a step further." Composed with "a photographer's eye", Sanchez's New York scenes recalled Berenice Abbott's urban photographs or Judith Turner's architectural abstractions. or can be categorized as Camp (style). For Angeline, Sanchez assimilated and appreciated "the different styles and artistic choices surrounding him while maintaining his own voice." == Public collections ==

Sanchez's work is found in many museum collections, most notably the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York NY) which has 200 drawings or prints. His work is also found in the collections of the Perez Art Museum Miami (Miami FL), Museum of Modern Art (New York NY), the New York Public Library (New York NY), Brooklyn Museum (Brooklyn NY), El Museo del Barrio, National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC), Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington DC), Art Museum of the Americas (Washington, DC), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston MA), Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute (Utica NY), Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco (San Francisco CA), Museum of Fine Arts Houston (Houston TX), Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Havana, Cuba), Museo de Arte de Ponce (Ponce PR), Museo de Bellas Artes (Caracas, Venezuela), Museo de Arte Moderno Bogotá (Bogotá, Colombia), Museo de Arte Moderno de Cartagena (Cartagena Colombia), La Tertulia Museum (Cali, Colombia), and at the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra, Australia). His work is also found in the university collections of the New York Law School, Ursinus College, University of Michigan, Muscarelle Museum of Art, Indiana University and Kinsey Institute, University of Wyoming, University of Notre Dame, Southern Illinois University, University of Virginia, Syracuse University, Caribbean University (Bayamón, PR), and at the Universidad del Turabo. Sanchez's original papers as well as a digital database of his work (5486 images and 614 text documents such as letters, press releases or reviews), compiled by the Emilio Sanchez Foundation, are located at the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art (Washington DC). A small archive of Sanchez's documents or source materials including photographs are archived at the Miami-Dade Public Library. == Emilio Sanchez Foundation ==

In his will Sanchez stipulated that a foundation be established to support contemporary artists or ophthalmic research as well as promote and distribute his remaining work. Officially established in 2005, the Foundation funded the Emilio Sanchez Award in the Visual Arts, awarded in association with the Cintas Foundation annually from 2005 to 2009. The Foundation also contributed to the Cuban Artist Fund, El Museo del Barrio, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Storefront for Art and Architecture, and the Museum of Latin American Art (Long Beach CA). From 2005 to 2012, the Foundation distributed over 4,000 of the artist's 7,000 prints or paintings to 72 institutions in the United States, Cuba and Puerto Rico, while the remainder were sold or are currently on sale. In 2011, the Foundation published Hard Light: The Work of Emilio Sanchez, edited by Curator Ann Koll, which included essays by John Angeline, Rudi C. Bleys, and Rafael DiazCasas. Although the Foundation closed its studio space on 19 West 21st Street In February 2012, it continues to maintain an online presence. == References ==