Herlinda Sanchez Laurel

Herlinda Sánchez Laurel (May 24, 1941 – February 21, 2019) was a Mexican artist and art professor at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Her career has been recognized by membership in the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana, and awards from the state of Baja California, the Palacio de Bellas Artes and the International Coordination of Women in Art among others.

Life Sánchez Laurel was born in Ensenada in the Mexican state of Baja California. She had her basic education in that city, studying first to become a secretary and then banking. However, a first prize win at a state art competition convinced her to move to Mexico City to study at the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda" from 1965 to 1969.

She returned to Ensenada, where she worked on a mural but afterwards she moved back permanently to Mexico City in 1971. She died in Mexico City.

The artist's first individual exhibition was in 1969 at the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, followed by a second in 1974 at the Galería de Pintura Joven in Mexico City. In 2003, she won the Cuatlícue Prize from the International Coordination of Women in Art and the Tec de Monterrey, Mexico City Campus held an exhibition and tribute. More recently the state of Baja California paid tribute to her career in 2002, as did the Palacio de Bellas Artes in 2003. In 2005, she received the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Medal from UNAM for her teaching career.

Artistry The work of Sánchez Laurel is figurative, and believes that the most poetic form of expression is when not everything is visible and that symbols are as important as color. She has created oil paintings, encaustic paintings and prints. Her work shows influence from Georges Braque, Amelia Peláez and Paul Klee along with Mexican artists such as Rufino Tamayo, Francisco Toledo, Gunther Gerzso and Roger von Gunten .

According to Blanca González Rosas, art critic of Proceso magazine, Sánchez Laurel had significant participation in the student strikes in Mexico in 1968 as president of the La Esmeralda National School of Painting, Sculpture and Printmaking. She was administrator and organizer of art from that school, safeguarding 65 original engraving plates from that time period, allowing for better understanding of the participation of artists, especially female ones, during the movement known as "Gráfica del 68."