artnexus #10

The everyday aspects of man's relationship with nature has been a constant feature of the work of Tomás Sánchez and since his early landscapes he has tried to make the viewer think of them.

This reflection was at first directed towards the rediscovery of the natural uncontaminated environment, far from the large urban centers which prevent us from establishing a personal contact with nature. The human figure disappears from these paintings, which recreate a limpid and calm atmosphere which is conducive to our re-encounter with this nature which has so often been forgotten.

Sanchez does not seek out picturesque or visually pleasing details, put proposes a meticulous observation of everyday aspects, combining an almost photographic technique with a sense of spirituality and subjectivity which suggest tranquillity and a full Enjoyment of nature.

It is this interest in communication and making the spectator reflect on his environment which gives rise to other ways of seeing and presenting the landscape through garbage dumps. Why garbage?

Sanchez himself has given us an explanation: I paint garbage umps for two reasons. Firstly, they allow me to do pictures which have some degree of criticism...they are always dark and motleyed.. he opposite of my landscapes. It is a dirty kind of nature but one which exists. I also like doing garbage dumps because you can find prything there and so you can paint what you like, from a doll or religious object to anything to which man has attached much alue at a given moment when something breaks you throw it on he garbage dump, which therefore becomes a kind of portrait of he people who have thrown things there. Jesus Christ said that we ill be known by our works; we will also be known by our garbage* For Sánchez, environmental pollution and the destruction of our latural habitat are the "crucifixion" of mankind. The garbage dump $ the landscape which man himself has contaminated a dense mass f urban and industrial waste with the same meticulous kind of etail which hitherto could be found in the splendor of nature.

* Interview with Toms Sánchez in Granma, Havana, 1985.

IVONNE PINI