U.S. #5595
2021 55¢ Emilio Sanchez – Ty's Place
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 was most well known for his architectural paintings. While his early paintings were more literal interpretations, his later works were more pared down. One curator described them as "imagined realism."
Sanchez grew up in Cuba, spent most of his adult life in New York, and traveled the Caribbean and Mediterranean. Everywhere he went, he carried a sketchbook and camera to record the architecture he encountered. He rarely painted famous or extravagant buildings. Instead, he preferred rustic, run-down structures. His paintings were explorations of the effects of light and shadow on color.
Over time, Sanchez's paintings became more abstract. Some of his paintings depicted full buildings, and some zoomed in on smaller sections such as awnings or stained glass. Sanchez usually removed unnecessary details and simplified the forms. The resulting images were symbols of buildings, rather than literal depictions of them. His paintings are noted for having a dreamlike quality – as if they depict buildings from an imagined world built on memories.
Sanchez's work was somewhat influenced by the abstract and modernist artistic movements of his time. But his work stood apart from his peers, giving viewers a glimpse into the world as he saw it.