Tomas Sanchez

Cuban artist born on May 22, 1948 in Aguada de Pasajeros, in the province of Cienfuegos, Cuba. The eldest of two sons, he comes from a middle class family in Ingenio Perseverancia, where his father was a sugar worker and merchant. He shared a sensibility for painting with his mother.

After graduating, Tomas Sanchez stayed on at the National School for the Arts as Professor and Chair of Engraving until 1976. In 1975, he won two first prizes, in Painting and Lithography, from the Third National Salon of Art Professors and Instructors in Havana. He subsequently joined the Theater Department of the Ministry of Culture’s Puppetry Workshop as a designer of scenery and children’s theater puppets. Until 1978, he collaborated with UNESCO’s Marionette Troupe, which introduced him to a universe very different from that of his previous work.