Emilio Sanchez (1921–1999) was an American artist known for his architectural paintings and graphic lithographs. His work is held in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York NY), Museum of Modern Art (New York NY), National Gallery of Art (Washington DC), Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington DC), Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana (Havana, Cuba), Museo de Arte de Ponce (Ponce, Puerto Rico), Bogotá Museum of Modern Art (Bogotá, Colombia), La Tertulia Museum (Cali, Colombia), and the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra, Australia)."Emilio Sanchez Biography {Fort Lauderdale Museum}." AskART. Web.

A representational artist with a modernist and, at times, abstract approach, Sanchez emphasized "pattern, color and strong lighting contrasts". By 1970, architectural themes, from detailed stained glass windows to abstracted storefronts or city skylines, dominated his oeuvre. Carol Damian of the Frost Art Museum (Miami, FL) described his work as studies in "horizontals and verticals, bold stripes of color, and the ever-present shadows, especially diagonal shadows that he so favored, with darks and lights in repetition."Damian, Carol. "Emilio Sanchez." Vie des Arts 53.215 (2009) Print. Web. For her, Sanchez's work was "not a picture of something, but the application of pigment onto a flat surface to become a singular object to its own definition."

Early life Emilio Sánchez Fonts was born in Camagüey, Cuba, in 1921, to Estrella Fonts and Emilio Sánchez.Angeline, John; Bleys, Rudi C.; and DiazCasas, Rafael. Hard Light: The Work of Emilio Sanchez. Ed. Ann Koll. New York: Prestel Publishing, 2011. 182. Print. 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.Angeline, John; Bleys, Rudi C.; and DiazCasas, Rafael. Hard Light: The Work of Emilio Sanchez. Ed. Ann Koll. New York: Prestel Publishing, 2011. 8. Print. 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. He traveled extensively throughout Europe and North and South America, and as a youth, attended the American boarding schools Ransom Everglades School, Fessenden School and, from 1935–39, The Choate School, now Choate Rosemary Hall.Angeline, John; Bleys, Rudi C.; and DiazCasas, Rafael. Hard Light: The Work of Emilio Sanchez. Ed. Ann Koll. New York: Prestel Publishing, 2011. 28. Print.

After his parents divorced, his mother married Peruvian artist Felipe Cossío del Pomar in 1938 and moved to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.Angeline, John; Bleys, Rudi C.; and DiazCasas, Rafael. Hard Light: The Work of Emilio Sanchez. Ed. Ann Koll. New York: Prestel Publishing, 2011. 10. Print. 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."Emilio Sanchez Foundation: Progress Report April 2012." Emilio Sanchez Foundation.

Encouraged to pursue art by Cossío del Pomar, Sánchez moved to New York City in 1944 to attend the Art Students League."Sanchez-Biography." Emilio Sanchez Foundation Web. He later studied watercolor painting under Dong Kingman at Columbia University School of the Arts.Angeline, John; Bleys, Rudi C.; and DiazCasas, Rafael. Hard Light: The Work of Emilio Sanchez. Ed. Ann Koll. New York: Prestel Publishing, 2011. 29. Print. 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.

In 1949, his first solo exhibition was held at Joseph Luyber Gallery in New York City, followed by solo shows in 1951 at Ferargil Gallery in New York and Ateneo Español in Mexico City."Sanchez-Exhibitions." Emilio Sanchez Foundation. Web. 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.Angeline, John; Bleys, Rudi C.; and DiazCasas, Rafael. Hard Light: The Work of Emilio Sanchez. Ed. Ann Koll. New York: Prestel Publishing, 2011. 11-13. Print. 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. In 1958, his solo show at Galerie Sudamerica (New York NY) was noted by Cuban critics. In 1959, he exhibited lithographs at the Havana Salón anual: Pintura, Escultura y Grabado and his first print solo exhibition Obras Gráficas, held at El Lyceum, was well received by the public and press.Angeline, John; Bleys, Rudi C.; and DiazCasas, Rafael. Hard Light: The Work of Emilio Sanchez. Ed. Ann Koll. New York: Prestel Publishing, 2011. 18. Print. Although Sanchez did not return to Cuba after 1960,Angeline, John; Bleys, Rudi C.; and DiazCasas, Rafael. Hard Light: The Work of Emilio Sanchez. Ed. Ann Koll. New York: Prestel Publishing 2011: 27. Print. he continued to exhibit in biennials throughout Central and South America.Angeline, John; Bleys, Rudi C.; and DiazCasas, Rafael. Hard Light: The Work of Emilio Sanchez. Ed. Ann Koll. New York: Prestel Publishing, 2011. 25. Print. 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. In 1968, Sanchez became an American citizen. He also signed with the renown Associated American Artists (New York NY) which held solo exhibitions of his work in 1968, in 1971 and 1981.

Although Sanchez continually explored a variety of subjects including fruit, flowers, clotheslines, sailboats, and sunsets, by 1971, architectural themes, such as the arched doorways of the Medio Punto oil paintings, emerged as his signature subject.Angeline, John; Bleys, Rudi C.; and DiazCasas, Rafael. Hard Light: The Work of Emilio Sanchez. Ed. Ann Koll. New York: Prestel Publishing 2011: 39. Print. 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). During the 1970s, frequent trips to the Mediterranean inspired Sanchez to adopt a more geometric and minimalist approach in his Moroccan paintings or Boston City Hall drawings. Sanchez also created drawings with themes of eroticism, gender, and LGBTQ+ themes. Sanchez was gay and closeted for the duration of his career.

By the late 1980s, he turned his attention to New York scenes and depicted Bronx bodegas, storefronts, and garages as solid blocks of color. During this time he exhibited at the Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale and the Miami-Dade Public Library in Florida as well as at galleries in Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton and Coral Gables, and in Miami, home to many exiled Cubans. Although Sanchez increasingly experienced vision problems, he continued to paint until his death in Warwick, New York, in 1999."Untitled, Bronx Storefront, "La Rumba Supermarket." Smithsonian American Art Museum. Web.

Since his death, solo exhibitions of Sanchez's work were noted at the Bronx Museum in 2001;"Art Exhibition: Emilio Sánchez in the Bronx." Repeating Islands. Web. at Boston City Hall in 2009;"New Exhibit: Emilio Sanchez and Boston City Hall & Images from the World of Lou Jones." City of Boston. Web. and at Syracuse University Art Galleries in 2011."Emilio Sanchez: No Way Home, Images of the Caribbean and New York City." Syracuse University Art Galleries. Web. Exhibitions of his work were held in 2012 at Saint Joseph College (Hartford CA),Dunn, Susan. "Abstract 'Color and Contrast' At Saint Joseph College." Hartford Courant 8 Jan 2012. Web. and the University of Virginia's Fralin Museum of Art,"Emilio Sanchez Cityscapes" The Fralin | University of Virginia Art Museum University of Virginia. Web. as well as in 2013 at the University of Oregon's Museum of Art,"Building Light & Shadow: The Architecture of Emilio Sanchez." Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. Web. the University of Michigan,Reister, Pamela. "Focus: New Acquisition Emilio Sanchez." University of Michigan Museum of Art. Web. Indiana University,"Emilio Sanchez's Visions of Light: Caribbean Architecture Reimagined." Visit Indiana. Web. and the Museo de Arte de Ponce (Ponce, Puerto Rico)."Art Exhibition—“Emilio Sánchez: Luz, línea y sombra.” Repeating Islands. 6 Aug 2013. Web'

Recognition and contribution Sanchez's paintings and prints drew the attention of both the public and critics as early as 1958. In 1967, he was interviewed for the series Listening with Pictures by Arlene Jacobowitz, Assistant Curator of Paintings and Sculpture of the Brooklyn Museum of Art."Sanchez-Interview." Emilio Sanchez Foundation Web. He was also recognized internationally and was awarded first prize at the 1974 Biennial in San Juan, Puerto Rico. During his career, his critical supporters included American art collector Barbara Duncan and A Hyatt Mayor, print curator at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

In style and subject matter Sanchez's work reflected both Latin-American and American culture. His colorful Caribbean palette and interest in light and shadow on vernacular architecture is attributed to his formative years in Cuba. Although his flat, sometimes abstract, geometric style was not unlike his Brazilian contemporaries Alfredo Volpi and Livio Abramo, his paintings evoked a sense of place that, for art historian Rafael DíazCasas, reflected a "feeling of displacement" and "idea of an absent household"."Thirteen paintings and works on paper by Emilio Sanchez at Frederico Sève Gallery." Art Daily. 2011.Web.Angeline, John; Bleys, Rudi C.; and DiazCasas, Rafael. Hard Light: The Work of Emilio Sanchez. Ed. Ann Koll. New York: Prestel Publishing 2011: 22. Print. Although Sanchez's work is important within American Hispanic art, his work is also in the tradition of American painters Edward Hopper and Georgia O'Keeffe.Angeline, John; Bleys, Rudi C.; and DiazCasas, Rafael. Hard Light: The Work of Emilio Sanchez. Ed. Ann Koll. New York: Prestel Publishing 2011: 30-32. Print. For art historian John Angeline, his work also evoked the paintings of Charles Sheeler and extended "Precisionism a step further."Angeline, John. "Emilio Sanchez." ArtNexus. 63 (Jan-Mar 2007). Print. Web. Composed with "a photographer's eye",Barnes, Peter. "Emilio Sanchez reveals beauty in unremarkable landscapes." C-Ville Weekly. Charlotte, Virginia. 25 Jun 2012. Web. Sanchez's New York scenes recalled Berenice Abbott's urban photographs or Judith Turner's architectural abstractions. Aesthetically versatile, Sanchez's "modernist investigations" are also linked to the Pop art imagery of Andy Warhol or Jasper Johns,Angeline, John; Bleys, Rudi C.; and DiazCasas, Rafael. Hard Light: The Work of Emilio Sanchez. Ed. Ann Koll. New York: Prestel Publishing 2011: 36. Print. or can be categorized as Camp (style).Angeline, John; Bleys, Rudi C.; and DiazCasas, Rafael. Hard Light: The Work of Emilio Sanchez. Ed. Ann Koll. New York: Prestel Publishing 2011: 47-51. Print. For Angeline, Sanchez assimilated and appreciated "the different styles and artistic choices surrounding him while maintaining his own voice."

In 2021, on the centennial anniversary of Sanchez's birth, the United States Postal Service released a series of postage stamps featuring four of his works: Los Toldos (1973), Ty’s Place (1976), En el Souk (1972) and Untitled (Ventanita entreabierta) (1981).

Public collections