Acrylic No. 13, 1970

Fanny Sanín 
Colombia, born 1938, active United States
Gift of Fanny Sanín
M.2014.220

Listen: Music Selection

Read: Liner Notes

Fanny Sanín grew up in an artistic household in Bogotá, Colombia where she was homeschooled alongside her sister Rosa in an environment brimming with cultural stimulation. Their father’s classical music selections were a ubiquitous presence in the home, that is, until the moment he’d step out of the door and Fanny, the more free-spirited of the two artist siblings, would jump for the radio dial to tune into vallenatos—a popular folk genre from the Northeastern Caribbean region of Colombia that blends European, African, and indigenous musical influences with stories of rural life. A dancer with a playful streak, Sanín would later gravitate to her father’s beloved classical music, and his record collection still lines her walls today. Music has been a constant companion and a core aspect of Sanín's painting practice; she has commented, “I could relate my work to the interplay of sounds, harmonies and tonalities like in music.” Musical analogies pair well with her non-figurative work full of rhythmic symmetry and structural lines that radiate into infinity. These days, Sanín favors classical chamber music while working, but she immerses herself in sounds as diverse as Indian music, American folk music, and more. "Danza Colombiana” by Antonio Maria Valencia is a piece that could reflect Sanín’s full circle musical journey—a chamber work expressing Colombian folk melodies and rhythms, a merging of the classical and dance music that have mingled in Sanín’s ears since her childhood.