Smithsonian_03_2020

ART

prologue

By

Amy Crawford

B

The circa

1968-96 Lunar

con Tatuaje

(Moon With

Tatto o), made of

stretched can-

vas and acrylic,

is one of over

40 works in the

retrospective.

BETTER LATE

Zilia Sánchez has long been a creative force. Now

she’s having her big moment—in her tenth decade

10 SMITHSONIAN | March 2020

©Z

ILI

A^ S

AN

CH

EZ

/^

CO

UR

TE

SY

G

AL

ER

IE^

LE

LO

NG

&^

CO

.,^

NE

W^

YO

RK

EING AN ISLAND is something strong,” says

the artist Zilia Sánchez, a singular, if long

overlooked talent. “It’s not about being

self-centered. The things I want to do, I want

to do them by myself.” The 93-year-old’s

fi rst museum retrospective, “Soy Isla” (or “I

Am an Island”), on view through this month at El Mu-

seo del Barrio in Manhattan, explores island life both

literal and fi gurative. Born in Cuba, Sánchez lived for

a time in New York City, then moved to Puerto Rico in

1971. Despite wide acclaim there, she was in her late
      80s before the international art world began to notice
      her undulating three-dimensional canvases, which
      she shapes over wooden armatures to suggest the fe-
      male form, otherworldly landscapes and the shifting
      sea. Sánchez lost much of her work when Hurricane
      Maria ripped the roof off her San Juan studio in 2017,
      but she rebuilt and continues to work every day, com-
      pelled, she says, by a stronger inner force. “That’s how
      the art is. It is in my soul. I have to go to the studio.”