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Zilia Sánchez Sin título from the series Topología erótica 1970

Zilia Sánchez’s work is characterized by a distinctive approach to formal abstraction using undulating silhouettes, muted colors, and a unique and sensual vocabulary. Her paintings are often modular, made up of two or more contiguous parts. Throughout her career, she has explored the close connection between the pictorial and the sculptural, the personal and the universal, the exterior and the interior, the feminine and the masculine. This piece, from the series Topología erótica, is divided into two semicircular sections that meet to form a raised line in the center. The light gray background serves as a platform and the use of white emphasizes the oval shape that bulges out from the middle like a uterus. In spite of the seemingly formal austerity of the work, the interplay between masculinity and femininity, and sensuality and severity is apparent. 
Identification
Title
Sin título from the series Topología erótica
Production Date
1970
Object Number
2017.011
Credit Line
Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami, museum purchase with funds provided by Jorge M. Pérez
Copyright
© Zilia Sánchez. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co., New York
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Physical Qualities
Medium
Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions
72 3/4 x 97 3/4 x 15 inches
Visual Description
Sin Titulo (Untitled), Topología erótica, by artist Zilia Sanchez, is an acrylic painting on canvas made in 1970. It measures roughly six feet tall, and eight feet wide, and is hung in landscape orientation, meaning its longest side runs parallel to the floor. This painting is an example of an abstraction, which is a style of painting that focuses on the gestural movement of shapes and colors rather than depicting scenes or figures. Sin Titulo extends away from the wall, into three-dimensional space, in a way that blurs the line between sculpture and painting. The piece consists of two equally sized rectangular canvases, placed together side by side. Both left and right halves are identically mirrored, with a center seam in the middle, dividing both halves. Sin Titulo contains a pale grey background color that extends to the four corners and edges of the large three-dimensional painting. Layered on top of this grey rectangle is a slightly elongated, large white circle. Very similar to two capital letter “D”s placed back-to-back, this large, bright curved shape contrasts with the straight lines of the canvas and its grey background. The white circle almost reaches the four edges of the canvas, centered at around more than five feet tall and seven feet wide, in comparison to the larger, rectangular backing, leaving a narrow grey ridge around the periphery of the paintings. Centered in the white oval rests a smaller circle, around two feet in diameter, that projects outward into space. The edge of this three-dimensional shape, pushing from underneath the canvas, accentuates the smaller circle compared to the rest of the painting. Inside this jutting section, appears the indentation of a horizontal rod. This rod pushes up from underneath the canvas, creating a raised outline of itself in the center of this artwork.
Zilia Sánchez
Zilia Sánchez — b. 1926, Havana; lives in San Juan; d. 2024, San Juan
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