TOMÁS SÁNCHEZ (B. 1948)
Tambos
1993

signed and dated 93; signed, titled and dated 1993 on the reverse
oil on canvas

78 3/4 by 98 1/2 in.
200 by 250 cm.

This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.
Footnotes:
Provenance
Collection of the artist, Cuba
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Literature
Iran O. Rey, Tomás Sánchez: Paintings · Pinturas, Florida 1996, n.p., illustrated in color
Gabriel García Márquez, Edward J. Sullivan, Tomás Sánchez, Milan 2003, p. 169, n. 139, illustrated in color
David Mateo, La Pintura Como Expansión de la Conciencia: Entrevista con Tomás Sánchez, Cuba 2015, p. 80-81, illustrated in color




Born in Cienfuegos, Cuba, Tomás Sánchez studied at la Academia de Artes Plásticas San Alejandro in Havana between 1964 and 1966. In 1971 he graduated from la Escuela Nacional de Arte (ENA), where he later became a professor of lithography. Initially drawn to landscape painting, after 1966 he drifted toward Neo-Expressionism under the influence of his teacher Antonia Eiriz. In 1980, Sánchez took home first prize at the Joan Miró International Drawing Contest in Barcelona, marking a significant moment in his career. He has held exhibitions in many cities around the world including Krakow, Tokyo, Paris, New York, Athens, Moscow, Prague, Vienna, Sao Paulo, Milan, Mexico City, Madrid and Miami. Sánchez currently resides in the United States and is represented by Marlborough Gallery, New York.

Tambos, from 1993, is part of a series of landfill paintings that Sánchez began in the late 1980s and early 90s. In the present work, the artist foregrounds three garbage bins that lead us into an infinite horizon of waste. The meticulous detail of the various objects surrounding the bins gives the sense of an all-encompassing space. The large format accentuates the idea of hopelessness in a contaminated world. Absent of greens and blues, the artist manages to execute each brush stroke with shades of gray, leaving no room for light. The white sheet of paper placed on one of the containers is not random; it represents a call for truce between humankind and nature, providing relief from the excessive damage that we have done.

'His are two worlds: the landscape and the garbage dumps. Looking at these pictures, you could almost envision that they all coincide in a space that is immobilized in an instant of time. [...] His journey is between the beauty of the landscape and the horror of the garbage dumps that are a denial of beauty, but that the painter knows how to capture a strange beauty' (Armando Álvarez Bravo, 'Tomás Sánchez Between Beauty and Horror', El Nuevo Herald, Miami, 8 April 1997).

The largest example from Sánchez's landfill series to be presented for sale at auction, this work prompts us to think about the relationship between these works and his more idyllic scenes of nature. He not only aims to challenge the very definition of landscape but forces the viewer to consider the haunting reality of human consumption. Rendered with the same skillful precision of his lush foliage and reflective bodies of water, these paintings draw inspiration from landfills in Mexico City. In this series, he manages to find beauty in the forsaken, compelling viewers to confront the complexities of our relationship with the environment.
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