U.S. #5594
2021 55¢ Emilio Sanchez – Los Toldos
Issue Date: June 10, 2021
First Day City: Miami, FL
Type of Stamp: Commemorative
Printed by: Ashton Potter (USA) Ltd.
Printing Method: Offset
Format: Pane of 20
Self-Adhesive
Quantity Printed: 18,000,000
Emilio Sanchez's (1921-99) formative years in Camagüey, Cuba, provided the fundamental inspiration for his life's work. Though he moved away in the 1950s, much of his art was directly inspired by the bold architecture that surrounded him as a child.
Sanchez was born to one of Cuba's oldest and wealthiest families and was exposed to some of the country's finest architecture. He was particularly drawn to the bold colors and shapes formed by light and shadows on the architectural details.
Early in his career, Sanchez painted bright tropical scenes and portraits inspired by his time in Cuba. Over the years, his work became slightly more abstract. Sanchez still painted recognizable objects, but he removed extraneous details, creating simplified, yet bold and graphic, scenes.
Sanchez went on to study art in America and moved to New York permanently in 1952. He made occasional trips back to Cuba throughout the 1950s. But after his family lost their home in the Cuban Revolution, his visits became more infrequent. He continued to paint Cuban architecture, and also applied the artistic principles he developed there to his architectural paintings of New York and the Caribbean.