Archives of American Art

A Finding Aid to the Emilio Sanchez Papers, 1922-2012, in the Archives of American Art

Summary

Collection ID:
AAA.sancemil
Creators:
Sanchez, Emilio, 1921-1999
Dates:
1922-2012
Languages:
The records are in
English
and
Spanish
.
Physical Description:
18.1 Linear feet
Repository:
The collection measures 18.1 linear feet, dates from 1922 to 2012, and documents the career of Cuban born painter and printmaker, Emilio Sanchez. The collection includes letters to Sanchez, business records, photographs of the artist and sources for his artwork, many original sketches, printed material, and calendars.

Scope and Content Note

Scope and Content Note
The papers of Cuban born painter and print maker Emilio Sanchez comprise 18.1 linear feet of material dating from 1922 to 2012. The papers contain biographical information about Sanchez; letters from galleries and museums recording business transactions; letters from friends; photographs of his artwork and places he visited for inspiration; personal photographs; sketches; exhibition catalogs, announcements, and reviews; clippings; and calendars.
A major portion of the collection consists of sketchbooks and sketches that provide rich documentation of Sanchez's artistic development and his working methods, particularly from the 1950s to the 1970s. Many of the sketches have detailed notations about aspects of an image that Sanchez wanted to recall and capture in his work. Photographs also provide insight into the architecture and landscapes that provided sources of inspiration for Sanchez.
A 10.1 linear foot addition contains biographical materials, correspondence, writings, photographs, works of art, subject files, printed materials, and scrapbooks. Biographical materials include address books, birth certificates, naturalization documents, and family-related documents. Correspondence is personal and professional and is with family, friends and museums. Writings are personal and include a log book and a typed transcription (possibly incomplete). Photographs are of Sanchez, his family, works of art, and source subjects for works of art, as well as CD-Roms of works of art. Some photographs assembled by Hugh Harrison, long-time friend of the Sanchez. Works of art include 10 sketchbooks and loose sketches. Also included are a drawing and 4 prints by Estrella Fonts, Sanchez's mother. Subject files include a print register, appraisals, mailing lists, and consignments. Printed material includes exhibition announcements and clippings. Also included are 3 scrapbooks, 2000-2012, that chronicle the history of the Emilio Sanchez Foundation's activities, including press releases, photographs, and exhibition-related material and hard drives of the foundation's databases in Filemaker format.

Arrangement

Arrangement
The collection is arranged as seven series. Records are generally arranged by subject category, and then chronologically.
  • Missing Title
  • Series 1: Biographical Material, 1969-1977, undated (box 1; 4 folders)
  • Series 2: Letters and Business Records, 1956-1979 (box 1; 25 folders)
  • Series 3: Photographs, 1922-1979, undated (boxes 1-3; 51 folders)
  • Series 4: Printed Material, 1950-1980, undated (boxes 3-4; 17 folders)
  • Series 5: Calendars, 1967-1976 (boxes 4-5; 7 folders)
  • Series 6: Sketches, circa 1940-1979, undated (boxes 5-6, sols 7-11, OV's 12-22, RD 23-24; 2.9 linear ft.)
  • Series 7: Unprocessed Addition to the Emilio Sanchez Papers, 1949-2012 (boxes 25-34, OV 35; 10.1 linear ft.)

Biographical Note

Biographical Note
Emilio Sanchez was born in 1921 in Camaguey, Cuba. He left his native country in 1952 to settle in New York where he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. A prolific painter and printmaker, Sanchez received his formal education at the Art Students' League and Columbia University during the late 1930s, and had his first of many one-man shows in New York in 1949. Sanchez traveled throughout the world sketching his impressions of houses and other buildings and capturing the details of doorways, windows, light, and shadow in his paintings and prints. His paintings of residential architecture in Cuba and throughout the Caribbean are some of his best known works, but in the 1980s he turned much of his attention to the skyline of his adopted home, and was often drawn also to American cities and landscapes over the course of his career.
Sanchez's work is represented in major museums and private collections the world over, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Hirshhorn Museum, the National Museum in Havana, and the Cintas Collection. He completed numerous commissions in both the United States and Mexico, has illustrated several books, including Arte del Peru Colonial by Felipe Cossío del Pomar (published in 1958 by the Fondo de Cultura Económica in Mexico), and has exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions in locations such as Mexico City, Paris, Havana, Madrid, Puerto Rico, Chile, Colombia, and throughout the United States.
Sanchez died in July, 1999 at the age of 78.

Administration

Author
Stephanie Ashley
Provenance
The collection was donated to the Archives of American Art by Emilio Sanchez in a series of gifts between 1975 and 1980, and in 2012 by Emilio Sanchez via Erik J. Stapper, Emilio Sanchez Foundation.
Processing Information
The collection was processed by Stephanie Ashley in 2002. An addition of 10.1 linear feet was received in 2012 and remains unprocessed.

Using the Collection

Restrictions on Access
The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment.
Terms of Use
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Preferred Citation
Emilio Sanchez papers, 1922-2012. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Related Material
Papers of Emilio Sanchez can also be found at the Dade County Public Library in Florida.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Photographs Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Painting, Modern -- 20th century -- New York (State) -- New York Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sketches Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Interviews Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sketchbooks Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Latino and Latin American artists Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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