Emilio Sanchez was born in Camagüey, Cuba in 1921. He began his artistic training at the Art Students League in 1944 when he moved to New York City where he lived until he died in 1999. However, it was in Cuba that he became fascinated with the play of light and shadow on colored forms that became a dominant characteristic of his works. His early works of the 1950s are stylized and figurative depicting themes such as portraits of friends and models, views of New York and tropical landscapes.

In the 1960s his works became significantly more abstract, though always maintaining a strong sense of naturalism. It is during this decade that his work matured into an individual vision and when he began to develop his well-known paintings of h...