In 1952, shortly after studying at the National School of Fine Arts of San Alejandro in Havana, Zilia Sánchez exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris and in 1953 had her first solo exhibition at the Havana Lyceum. During this period, she traveled extensively between Havana, New York and Madrid, finding inspiration in a myriad of artists, such as Lucio Fontana and Eva Hesse, as well as her Cuban contemporaries, Amelia Peláez and Sandú Darié. Soon Sánchez began creating works that employed canvases tightly stretched over hand‐molded wooden armatures, of which the present lot is a seminal example. These works explore the juxtaposition between feminine and masculine through formal abstraction and a distinctively sensual vocabulary. Yet, they remain elusive and unusual as Marta Traba aptly elucidates, “Sánchez’ works appear to transform an erotic paradigm premised on metaphoric interiority into one organized as literal exteriority, that is, into a poetics of surface itself” (Irene V. Small, Zilia Sánchez – Heróicas Eróticas en Nueva York, New York 2014, p. 6). Sánchez broke free from the rectangular expectations of the painted canvas, yet she did not adhere strictly to Concrete art, like many of the male artists from this period in Cuba. The present lot is amply proportioned, featuring a curved form in a rosy skin-like hue that is immediately evocative of the female form with its undulating curves and smooth surface. Unlike her contemporaries, Sánchez has never been fearful of referencing the body in her abstract works, creating powerful pieces that incite lust and deep sentiment in viewers.