Zilia Sánchez. Untitled, from the series Topología erótica (Erotic Topology), 1970. Acrylic on canvas. 72 3/4 x 97 3/4 inches. Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami, museum purchase with funds provided by Jorge M. Pérez  

Zilia Sánchez’s work is characterized by a distinctive approach to formal abstraction. Using undulating silhouettes, muted colors, and a uniquely sensual vocabulary, her paintings are often modular, made up of two or more contiguous parts. Throughout her career, she has explored the close connection between the pictorial and the sculptural, the personal and the universal, the exterior and the interior, the feminine and the masculine. This untitled piece from the series Topología erótica is divided into two semicircular sections that meet to form a raised line in the center. The light gray background serves as a platform and the use of white emphasizes the oval shape that bulges out from the middle like a uterus. In spite of the formal austerity of the work, there is an interplay between masculinity and femininity, sensuality and severity in Sánchez’s molded forms.