ABSTRACT
Cuban art had also changed, and by the 1940s, a new generation of Cuban artists were at the height of vanguard modernism, in search of a more intimate expression of a national ethos and identity. Throughout the years that Emilio spent studying in the United States, he continued to return to Cuba, usually shifting between Central Senado and Havana, where many of his relatives also had residences. Travel in Cuba in the 1940s and 1950s was dominated by North American tastes and preferences, though Emilio was able to move quickly beyond the conspicuous consumerism that governed the island and seek out a more nuanced expression of Cuban buildings, landscapes, and people. Like his mentor, who came from an elite family, but preferred to focus his art on the ordinary aspects of city life and the day-to-day activities of its inhabitants, Sanchez took to the streets of Old Havana, Central Havana, the Malecon, and El Vedado to explore the city’s riches.
