Tomás Sánchez

The first comprehensive publication devoted to Tomás Sánchez, one of the most important and celebrated contemporary Cuban artists.

Sánchez is a commanding realist, although his landscapes are imagined or dreamed. His work is meticulous in its breathtaking detail, but the objective of the artist is not so much the recreation of reality as it is displaying the magnificence of a lyrical universe. In this respect, Sánchez is closer to his compatriot, the author Alejo Carpentier, or perhaps to the Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márguez, in their insistence on the magical realism of Latin American existence, than he is to the North American model of hyperrealism.
Tomás Sánchez is a creator of deeply spiritual images of nature; his various scenes of lush vegetation create an ambience of profound peace, achieving a transcendent, meditative state that radiates spirituality. His paintings may, on one level, represents metaphors for a paradise long-lost to humanity. On another plane, they may be analyzed as allegories of the Cuban landscape-dreams of a place which may never be re-captured, even in memory. Like all great landscape paintings of the past, the view of nature by Sánchez communicates respect and a connection with the forces of the earth.
Richly illustrated, this volume follows the development of Sánchez's work from the first expressionist paintings to the latest landscapes of 2002. The book includes an essay by Gabriel García Márquez and a text and an interview by Edward J. Sullivan, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Fine Arts, New York University.