Equilibrium invites viewers into the rigorous working process of pioneering Colombian-born artist Fanny Sanín. Known for her colorful geometric abstract compositions, Sanín makes between four and eighteen carefully composed preliminary works for each finished painting.
This exhibition explores her methodical process through a selection of some the artist’s earliest abstract expressionist works as well as two complete series of preliminary drawings and their attendant, finished geometric compositions. Sanín’s signature painting style is smooth and meticulous, yet her studies pulsate with visible gesture. She uses drawings, which Sanín describes as the most important part of her process, to experiment with arrangements of form and color until reaching the desired visual equilibrium.
Born in 1938 in Bogotá, Colombia, Sanín developed her visual language while studying at the University of the Andes in Bogotá during Colombia’s vibrant avant-garde art scene in the 1950s and 1960s. Sanín continued her studies in the U.S. and the U.K., and she has lived in New York City since 1971. She maintains close ties to her native country, where, in 2015, Sanín was honored with a year-long exhibition at the Museo Nacional in Bogotá. Her work hangs in public and private collections throughout North and South America.
Exhibition Sponsors
Equilibrium: Fanny Sanín, presented in the Teresa Lozano Long Gallery of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), is organized by the museum and generously supported by the members of NMWA.