U.S. #5597
2021 55¢ Emilio Sanchez – Ventanita Entreabierta
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
Born in Cuba, Emilio Sanchez first went to New York City in 1944 to study at the Art Students League. Inspired by the city's variety of buildings, he settled there in 1952, making it his home for the rest of his life.
Sanchez established himself as a successful artist early in his time in New York. He displayed his prints and paintings at exhibitions, earning him wide critical and public praise. Early on, his paintings focused on Cuban, Caribbean, and South American architecture. But over time, he couldn't help but paint Neew York. Urban scenes, storefronts, garages, and skyscrapers filled his canvases. His crisp lines evoked the city's complex geometry and were a break from the abstract styles many other artists adopted at the time. His was its own form of abstraction – the buildings were still recognizable as buildings (or parts of buildings) but they were simplified and exaggerated, bringing new life to old forms.
Sanchez also painted the sun rising over the East River and settnig over the Hudson. And he painted harlequins, cabarets, and high-society women. These paintings were looser and more organic than his geometric architectural paintings. But they still had a dream-like quality that made them unmistakable Sanchez works.