Alfredo Ramos Martínez
Encyclopedia
Alfredo Ramos Martínez (November 12, 1871 in Monterrey
, Nuevo León
, Mexico
– November 8, 1946 in Hollywood, California) was a painter and muralist who lived and worked in Mexico, Paris, and Los Angeles. Considered by many to be the father of Mexican Modernism, Ramos Martínez was a celebrated artist and educator best known for his serene and empathetic portraits of traditional Mexican people and scenes. As the poet Rubén Darío
wrote, "Ramos Martínez is one of those who paints poems; he does not copy, he interprets; he understands how to express the sorrow of the fisherman and the melancholy of the village.”
, Nuevo León
, the ninth child of Jacobo Ramos and his wife Luisa Martinez. His father was a successful merchant trading in jewelry, fine fabrics, silver, embroidered suits and hand-woven sarapes from Saltillo. All members of the Ramos Martinez family were involved with their father’s business and it was expected that the artist, too, would one day join the ranks of “honorable merchant”. However, Ramos Martinez’s gifts and instincts propelled him towards a career in the arts; a choice that his family ultimately supported.
At the age of fourteen, one of Ramos Martinez's drawings, a portrait of the governor of Monterrey, was sent to an exhibition in San Antonio, Texas and won first prize. A portion of that prize included a scholarship to study at the most prestigious art school in all of Mexico, Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. Thus the entire Ramos Martinez family relocated to Coyoacan
, a small town on the outskirts of Mexico City
.
From the beginning Ramos Martinez was recognized as prodigiously talented. His favored medium was watercolor and he won numerous awards for his achievements. Though he found the teaching methods at the Academy repressive and counter-intuitive to his more emotional plein aire impulses, Ramos Martinez created a significant body of work that he was able to sell while still a student. Gratifying as his youthful accomplishments were, the news from France, and the examples of the brilliance of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists, persuaded the young painter that he needed to be in Europe to continue his education and define his career. Though his family was by no means poor, they did not have funds to support Ramos Martinez’s European dream.
In a supreme bit of good fortune, Phoebe Hearst
attended a dinner in Mexico City for the President of Mexico, Porfirio Diaz
, which featured place mats designed and painted by the young Ramos Martinez. Mrs. Hearst was so impressed with the decoration that she asked to meet the artist and see other examples of his work. After their meeting, Mrs. Hearst not only bought all of Ramos Martinez’s watercolors, but agreed to provide financial support for the artist’s continued study in Paris.
. Furthermore, Mrs. Hearst’s monthly stipend of 500 francs, combined with Ramos Martinez’s fluent French, afforded him a comfortable life style and the ability to travel throughout Europe.
While in Paris, Ramos Martinez attended various artistic and literary salons and made the acquaintance of the renowned Nicaraguan poet, Rubén Dario
. Dario and Ramos Martinez became fast friends, thus insuring Ramos Martinez’s inclusion in a circle of rather extraordinary bon vivants such as Isadora Duncan
, Paul Verlaine
, Eleanora Duse, Rémy de Gourmont
and Anna Pavlova.
Dario wrote at length about the painterly and literary ideas that defined the creative output of both artists during those years. The two sojourned to Belgium and Holland to study the works of Rembrandt van Rijn and Vincent van Gogh. The artist’s works from this period are strongly influenced by the somber tonalities of sky and sea.
Also, it was in Brittany, that Ramos Martinez began painting on newsprint, a material/medium he used to superb effect during his years in California. When the artist discovered he had run out of drawing paper, he asked the concierge at the Inn where he was staying during a holiday weekend if he had any paper suitable for drawing. The gentleman offered him newsprint in abundance.
In 1905, Ramos Martinez began participating in the yearly Salon d'Automne
, perhaps the most important of all the salons of that era. Within a year of his first showing there, his painting Le Printemps was awarded the Gold medal.
However, after this great acknowledgment, Mrs. Hearst decided she would no longer give him his monthly stipend and Ramos Martinez began the struggle of earning his living as an artist.
Ramos Martinez showed at a number of galleries in Paris. One of the leading art critics of the day, Camille Mauclair
wrote that the work of Ramos Martinez was in the same class as the finest Impressionist landscapes exhibited in Paris. Though the sale of his artwork was proceeding, and Ramos Martinez had achieved a degree of comfort as a ‘Parisian’, in 1909 he felt a strong desire to return home to Mexico.
was beginning in earnest and the 30-year rule of President Porfirio Diaz was on the verge of collapse due to the pressure of the political reforms of Francisco I. Madero
. Within a year of the President’s resignation in 1911, the art students at the National Academy called a strike in order to protest the “aesthetic dictatorship” of the Academy. They demanded the establishment of a “Free Academy” and proposed Ramos Martinez as director. Hailed as a distinguished alumni, a bona fide European success and sympathetic to the students’ cause, Ramos Martinez became first the assistant Director and, by 1913, the Director of the Academy.
Now, as Director, he was able to open the first of his Open Air Schools of Painting. With the example of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists in mind and fortified by his sense of the primacy of the artist’s personal vision, Ramos Martinez’s Open Air Schools redefined the nature of artistic instruction in Mexico.
The first school was established in Santa Anita Ixtapalapa with an initial class of 10 boys, including David Alfaro Siqueiros
, Federico Cantú who later became a noted Mexican muralist. By 1914, Ramos Martinez stepped down as Director of the Academy but opened another Open Air School in Coyoacan
. That same year, his student’s work was featured in the Exhibition of Works from Public and Art Schools at the Spanish Pavilion and met with extremely favorable response.
The political situation in Mexico remained extremely volatile for the next decade and by 1920 Ramos Martinez was reinstated as Director of the Academy. Despite all the politics, the Open Air Schools flourished and Ramos Martinez was acknowledged as a true innovator in the Mexican art world or, as he is frequently referred to, the “Father of Modern Mexican Art”. To quote Ramon Alvade la Canal in “Los acaparadores de murales”, “...the true force behind contemporary Mexican painting wasn’t Diego Rivera; it was Alfredo Ramos Martinez”.
While Ramos Martnez invested a majority of his energy in teaching and the establishment of his Open Air Schools, he also continued his own work as a painter. In 1923, he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold by King Albert of Belgium in recognition of his contributions to the visual arts.
In 1928, Ramos Martinez married Maria de Sodi Romero of Oaxaca
. Their daughter, Maria was born one year later, suffering from a crippling bone disease. Ramos Martinez resigned as Director of the Academy and sought treatment for his daughter’s condition. The family traveled to the Mayo Clinic
in Rochester, Minnesota and eventually resolved to settle in the milder climate of Los Angeles, with Maria under the care of Dr. John A. Wilson.
in 1929, Ramos Martinez was offered an exhibition by William Alanson Bryan, Director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
at Exposition Park. A number of subsequent exhibitions followed, with Martinez developing a strong following in the Hollywood community.
Well-known Warner Brothers art director and interior decorator to the stars Harold Grieve acquired a number of works by the artist and championed the artist’s work to his clients. Noted directors Ernst Lubitsch
, and Alfred Hitchcock
, costume designer Edith Head
, writer Jo Swerling
and actors Charles Laughton
, Gary Cooper
, James Stewart
, and Beulah Bondi
, among others, were collectors.
Ramos Martinez was also exhibited with great success in San Diego at the Fine Arts Gallery of Balboa Park and in San Francisco at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. It was there that celebrated Bay Area art patron Albert Bender first saw Ramos Martinez’ work. Bender became a lifelong friend of the artist and acquired numerous works for his personal collection. Further more, he purchased and donated Ramos Martinez works to the collections of the Legion of Honor, the San Francisco Museum of Art, the California Historical Society and Mills College
.
In addition to his mastery of all conventional media including drawing, printmaking, watercolor, and easel painting, Ramos Martinez was an extremely skilled muralist who excelled in the technically challenging art of traditional fresco painting. Though a number of his murals were destroyed, including the Chapman Park Hotel mural (adjacent to the famous Brown Derby Restaurant) and the Normal School for Teachers (Escuela Normal) in Mexico City
, several examples are still viewable: the Chapel of the Santa Barbara Cemetery (1934); the La Avenida Café (Coronado, now the Coronado Public Library); and the beautiful unfinished Margaret Fowler Frescoes, Scripps College
, Claremont (1945). The Scripps mural was commissioned by the College at the urging of Millard Sheets
, the much loved California artist and long-time admirer of Ramos Martinez. One of Ramos Martinez' most significant frescoes, the "La Guelaguetza", named after the ancient Oaxacan celebration of the Earth's abundance, was commissioned in 1933 by screenwriter Jo Swerling for his North Rodeo Drive home in Beverly Hills. Having fallen into obscurity for many years it was rescued before demolition of the residence in 1990.
Alfredo Ramos Martinez died unexpectedly at the age of 73 on November 8, 1946 in Hollywood, California. He was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery. At the time of his death, Ramos Martinez was working on an extensive mural at Scripps College
. The mural has been left unfinished as a tribute to him.
In 1991, Louis Stern
presented the first major retrospective of the artist’s work since his death. The exhibition, Alfredo Ramos Martinez (1872–1946) opened at Louis Stern Galleries in Beverly Hills on October 1 and continued through January 6, 1992. This exhibition was the foundation of the monumental Ramos Martinez’ exhibition, Alfredo Ramos Martínez (1871–1946) Une Visión Retrospectiva, at Mexico City’s renowned Museo Nacional de Arte (MUNAL) in April of that same year.
These two exhibitions became the cornerstones of a re-examination of Ramos Martinez’s work and subsequent development of the market for these works. As with the other major Mexican Modernists, indigenous peoples were the principal subjects in the mature works of Ramos Martinez. In recent years, several of these paintings have realized high prices on the international art market. His 1938 "Flowers of Mexico" brought over $4 million at Christie's
in a New York auction in May 2007.
Monterrey
Monterrey , is the capital city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León in the country of Mexico. The city is anchor to the third-largest metropolitan area in Mexico and is ranked as the ninth-largest city in the nation. Monterrey serves as a commercial center in the north of the country and is the...
, Nuevo León
Nuevo León
Nuevo León It is located in Northeastern Mexico. It is bordered by the states of Tamaulipas to the north and east, San Luis Potosí to the south, and Coahuila to the west. To the north, Nuevo León has a 15 kilometer stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border adjacent to the U.S...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
– November 8, 1946 in Hollywood, California) was a painter and muralist who lived and worked in Mexico, Paris, and Los Angeles. Considered by many to be the father of Mexican Modernism, Ramos Martínez was a celebrated artist and educator best known for his serene and empathetic portraits of traditional Mexican people and scenes. As the poet Rubén Darío
Rubén Darío
Félix Rubén García Sarmiento , known as Rubén Darío, was a Nicaraguan poet who initiated the Spanish-American literary movement known as modernismo that flourished at the end of the 19th century...
wrote, "Ramos Martínez is one of those who paints poems; he does not copy, he interprets; he understands how to express the sorrow of the fisherman and the melancholy of the village.”
The Early Years 1885-1900
Ramos Martínez was born in 1871 in MonterreyMonterrey
Monterrey , is the capital city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León in the country of Mexico. The city is anchor to the third-largest metropolitan area in Mexico and is ranked as the ninth-largest city in the nation. Monterrey serves as a commercial center in the north of the country and is the...
, Nuevo León
Nuevo León
Nuevo León It is located in Northeastern Mexico. It is bordered by the states of Tamaulipas to the north and east, San Luis Potosí to the south, and Coahuila to the west. To the north, Nuevo León has a 15 kilometer stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border adjacent to the U.S...
, the ninth child of Jacobo Ramos and his wife Luisa Martinez. His father was a successful merchant trading in jewelry, fine fabrics, silver, embroidered suits and hand-woven sarapes from Saltillo. All members of the Ramos Martinez family were involved with their father’s business and it was expected that the artist, too, would one day join the ranks of “honorable merchant”. However, Ramos Martinez’s gifts and instincts propelled him towards a career in the arts; a choice that his family ultimately supported.
At the age of fourteen, one of Ramos Martinez's drawings, a portrait of the governor of Monterrey, was sent to an exhibition in San Antonio, Texas and won first prize. A portion of that prize included a scholarship to study at the most prestigious art school in all of Mexico, Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. Thus the entire Ramos Martinez family relocated to Coyoacan
Coyoacán
Coyoacán refers to one of the sixteen boroughs of the Federal District of Mexico City as well as the former village which is now the borough’s “historic center.” The name comes from Nahuatl and most likely means “place of coyotes,” when the Aztecs named a pre-Hispanic village on the southern shore...
, a small town on the outskirts of Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
.
From the beginning Ramos Martinez was recognized as prodigiously talented. His favored medium was watercolor and he won numerous awards for his achievements. Though he found the teaching methods at the Academy repressive and counter-intuitive to his more emotional plein aire impulses, Ramos Martinez created a significant body of work that he was able to sell while still a student. Gratifying as his youthful accomplishments were, the news from France, and the examples of the brilliance of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists, persuaded the young painter that he needed to be in Europe to continue his education and define his career. Though his family was by no means poor, they did not have funds to support Ramos Martinez’s European dream.
In a supreme bit of good fortune, Phoebe Hearst
Phoebe Hearst
Phoebe Apperson Hearst was an American philanthropist, feminist and suffragist. She was also the mother of William Randolph Hearst.-Biography:...
attended a dinner in Mexico City for the President of Mexico, Porfirio Diaz
Porfirio Díaz
José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori was a Mexican-American War volunteer and French intervention hero, an accomplished general and the President of Mexico continuously from 1876 to 1911, with the exception of a brief term in 1876 when he left Juan N...
, which featured place mats designed and painted by the young Ramos Martinez. Mrs. Hearst was so impressed with the decoration that she asked to meet the artist and see other examples of his work. After their meeting, Mrs. Hearst not only bought all of Ramos Martinez’s watercolors, but agreed to provide financial support for the artist’s continued study in Paris.
Paris 1901-1910
Ramos Martinez’s arrival in Paris in 1900 coincided with further development of the Post-Impressionist movement. He was able to see firsthand the work of Gauguin, Van Gogh, Matisse, Monet, Seurat and Odilon RedonOdilon Redon
Bertrand-Jean Redon, better known as Odilon Redon was a French symbolist painter, printmaker, draughtsman and pastellist.-Life:...
. Furthermore, Mrs. Hearst’s monthly stipend of 500 francs, combined with Ramos Martinez’s fluent French, afforded him a comfortable life style and the ability to travel throughout Europe.
While in Paris, Ramos Martinez attended various artistic and literary salons and made the acquaintance of the renowned Nicaraguan poet, Rubén Dario
Rubén Darío
Félix Rubén García Sarmiento , known as Rubén Darío, was a Nicaraguan poet who initiated the Spanish-American literary movement known as modernismo that flourished at the end of the 19th century...
. Dario and Ramos Martinez became fast friends, thus insuring Ramos Martinez’s inclusion in a circle of rather extraordinary bon vivants such as Isadora Duncan
Isadora Duncan
Isadora Duncan was a dancer, considered by many to be the creator of modern dance. Born in the United States, she lived in Western Europe and the Soviet Union from the age of 22 until her death at age 50. In the United States she was popular only in New York, and only later in her life...
, Paul Verlaine
Paul Verlaine
Paul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.-Early life:...
, Eleanora Duse, Rémy de Gourmont
Remy de Gourmont
Remy de Gourmont was a French Symbolist poet, novelist, and influential critic. He was widely read in his era, and an important influence on Blaise Cendrars...
and Anna Pavlova.
Dario wrote at length about the painterly and literary ideas that defined the creative output of both artists during those years. The two sojourned to Belgium and Holland to study the works of Rembrandt van Rijn and Vincent van Gogh. The artist’s works from this period are strongly influenced by the somber tonalities of sky and sea.
Also, it was in Brittany, that Ramos Martinez began painting on newsprint, a material/medium he used to superb effect during his years in California. When the artist discovered he had run out of drawing paper, he asked the concierge at the Inn where he was staying during a holiday weekend if he had any paper suitable for drawing. The gentleman offered him newsprint in abundance.
In 1905, Ramos Martinez began participating in the yearly Salon d'Automne
Salon d'Automne
In 1903, the first Salon d'Automne was organized by Georges Rouault, André Derain, Henri Matisse, Angele Delasalle and Albert Marquet as a reaction to the conservative policies of the official Paris Salon...
, perhaps the most important of all the salons of that era. Within a year of his first showing there, his painting Le Printemps was awarded the Gold medal.
However, after this great acknowledgment, Mrs. Hearst decided she would no longer give him his monthly stipend and Ramos Martinez began the struggle of earning his living as an artist.
Ramos Martinez showed at a number of galleries in Paris. One of the leading art critics of the day, Camille Mauclair
Camille Mauclair
Séverin Faust , better known by his pseudonym Camille Mauclair, was a French poet, novelist, biographer, travel writer, and art critic....
wrote that the work of Ramos Martinez was in the same class as the finest Impressionist landscapes exhibited in Paris. Though the sale of his artwork was proceeding, and Ramos Martinez had achieved a degree of comfort as a ‘Parisian’, in 1909 he felt a strong desire to return home to Mexico.
Mexico 1910-1929
By the time Ramos Martinez arrived in early 1910, Mexico was a nation in turmoil. The Mexican RevolutionMexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
was beginning in earnest and the 30-year rule of President Porfirio Diaz was on the verge of collapse due to the pressure of the political reforms of Francisco I. Madero
Francisco I. Madero
Francisco Ignacio Madero González was a politician, writer and revolutionary who served as President of Mexico from 1911 to 1913. As a respectable upper-class politician, he supplied a center around which opposition to the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz could coalesce...
. Within a year of the President’s resignation in 1911, the art students at the National Academy called a strike in order to protest the “aesthetic dictatorship” of the Academy. They demanded the establishment of a “Free Academy” and proposed Ramos Martinez as director. Hailed as a distinguished alumni, a bona fide European success and sympathetic to the students’ cause, Ramos Martinez became first the assistant Director and, by 1913, the Director of the Academy.
Now, as Director, he was able to open the first of his Open Air Schools of Painting. With the example of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists in mind and fortified by his sense of the primacy of the artist’s personal vision, Ramos Martinez’s Open Air Schools redefined the nature of artistic instruction in Mexico.
The first school was established in Santa Anita Ixtapalapa with an initial class of 10 boys, including David Alfaro Siqueiros
David Alfaro Siqueiros
José David Alfaro Siqueiros was a social realist painter, known for his large murals in fresco that helped establish the Mexican Mural Renaissance, together with works by Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, and also a member of the Mexican Communist Party who participated in an...
, Federico Cantú who later became a noted Mexican muralist. By 1914, Ramos Martinez stepped down as Director of the Academy but opened another Open Air School in Coyoacan
Coyoacán
Coyoacán refers to one of the sixteen boroughs of the Federal District of Mexico City as well as the former village which is now the borough’s “historic center.” The name comes from Nahuatl and most likely means “place of coyotes,” when the Aztecs named a pre-Hispanic village on the southern shore...
. That same year, his student’s work was featured in the Exhibition of Works from Public and Art Schools at the Spanish Pavilion and met with extremely favorable response.
The political situation in Mexico remained extremely volatile for the next decade and by 1920 Ramos Martinez was reinstated as Director of the Academy. Despite all the politics, the Open Air Schools flourished and Ramos Martinez was acknowledged as a true innovator in the Mexican art world or, as he is frequently referred to, the “Father of Modern Mexican Art”. To quote Ramon Alvade la Canal in “Los acaparadores de murales”, “...the true force behind contemporary Mexican painting wasn’t Diego Rivera; it was Alfredo Ramos Martinez”.
While Ramos Martnez invested a majority of his energy in teaching and the establishment of his Open Air Schools, he also continued his own work as a painter. In 1923, he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold by King Albert of Belgium in recognition of his contributions to the visual arts.
In 1928, Ramos Martinez married Maria de Sodi Romero of Oaxaca
Oaxaca
Oaxaca , , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca is one of the 31 states which, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided into 571 municipalities; of which 418 are governed by the system of customs and traditions...
. Their daughter, Maria was born one year later, suffering from a crippling bone disease. Ramos Martinez resigned as Director of the Academy and sought treatment for his daughter’s condition. The family traveled to the Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a not-for-profit medical practice and medical research group specializing in treating difficult patients . Patients are referred to Mayo Clinic from across the U.S. and the world, and it is known for innovative and effective treatments. Mayo Clinic is known for being at the top of...
in Rochester, Minnesota and eventually resolved to settle in the milder climate of Los Angeles, with Maria under the care of Dr. John A. Wilson.
California 1930-1946
Having relocated to Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
in 1929, Ramos Martinez was offered an exhibition by William Alanson Bryan, Director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....
at Exposition Park. A number of subsequent exhibitions followed, with Martinez developing a strong following in the Hollywood community.
Well-known Warner Brothers art director and interior decorator to the stars Harold Grieve acquired a number of works by the artist and championed the artist’s work to his clients. Noted directors Ernst Lubitsch
Ernst Lubitsch
Ernst Lubitsch was a German-born film director. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as his prestige grew, his films were promoted as having "the Lubitsch touch."In 1947 he received an Honorary Academy Award for his...
, and Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
, costume designer Edith Head
Edith Head
Edith Head was an American costume designer who won eight Academy Awards, more than any other woman.-Early life and career:...
, writer Jo Swerling
Jo Swerling
Jo Swerling was an American theatre writer and lyricist and a screenwriter.Born in Berdichev, Russian Empire, Swerling was a refugee of the Czarist regime who grew up on New York City's lower East Side, where he sold newspapers to help support his family...
and actors Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton was an English-American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producer and director.-Early life and career:...
, Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper
Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...
, James Stewart
James Stewart
James Stewart was a Hollywood movie actor and USAF brigadier general.James Stewart may also refer to:-Noblemen:*James Stewart, 5th High Steward of Scotland*James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorn James Stewart (1908–1997) was a Hollywood movie actor and USAF brigadier general.James Stewart...
, and Beulah Bondi
Beulah Bondi
Beulah Bondi was an American actress.Bondi began her acting career as a young child in theater, and after establishing herself as a stage actress, she reprised her role in Street Scene for the 1931 film version...
, among others, were collectors.
Ramos Martinez was also exhibited with great success in San Diego at the Fine Arts Gallery of Balboa Park and in San Francisco at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. It was there that celebrated Bay Area art patron Albert Bender first saw Ramos Martinez’ work. Bender became a lifelong friend of the artist and acquired numerous works for his personal collection. Further more, he purchased and donated Ramos Martinez works to the collections of the Legion of Honor, the San Francisco Museum of Art, the California Historical Society and Mills College
Mills College
Mills College is an independent liberal arts women's college founded in 1852 that offers bachelor's degrees to women and graduate degrees and certificates to women and men. Located in Oakland, California, Mills was the first women's college west of the Rockies. The institution was initially founded...
.
In addition to his mastery of all conventional media including drawing, printmaking, watercolor, and easel painting, Ramos Martinez was an extremely skilled muralist who excelled in the technically challenging art of traditional fresco painting. Though a number of his murals were destroyed, including the Chapman Park Hotel mural (adjacent to the famous Brown Derby Restaurant) and the Normal School for Teachers (Escuela Normal) in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
, several examples are still viewable: the Chapel of the Santa Barbara Cemetery (1934); the La Avenida Café (Coronado, now the Coronado Public Library); and the beautiful unfinished Margaret Fowler Frescoes, Scripps College
Scripps College
Scripps College is a progressive liberal arts women's college in Claremont, California, United States. It is a member of the Claremont Colleges. Scripps ranks 3rd for the nation's best women's college, ahead of Barnard College, Mount Holyoke College, and Bryn Mawr College at 23rd on the list for...
, Claremont (1945). The Scripps mural was commissioned by the College at the urging of Millard Sheets
Millard Sheets
Millard Owen Sheets was an American painter and a representative of the California School of Painting, later a teacher and educational director, and architect of more than 50 branch banks in Southern California.-Early life:...
, the much loved California artist and long-time admirer of Ramos Martinez. One of Ramos Martinez' most significant frescoes, the "La Guelaguetza", named after the ancient Oaxacan celebration of the Earth's abundance, was commissioned in 1933 by screenwriter Jo Swerling for his North Rodeo Drive home in Beverly Hills. Having fallen into obscurity for many years it was rescued before demolition of the residence in 1990.
Alfredo Ramos Martinez died unexpectedly at the age of 73 on November 8, 1946 in Hollywood, California. He was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery. At the time of his death, Ramos Martinez was working on an extensive mural at Scripps College
Scripps College
Scripps College is a progressive liberal arts women's college in Claremont, California, United States. It is a member of the Claremont Colleges. Scripps ranks 3rd for the nation's best women's college, ahead of Barnard College, Mount Holyoke College, and Bryn Mawr College at 23rd on the list for...
. The mural has been left unfinished as a tribute to him.
Recent history
After the artist’s death, the Dalzell Hatfield Gallery in Los Angeles continued to showcase the paintings and drawings. Maria Sodi de Ramos Martinez, the artist’s widow, saw to it that Ramos Martinez was included in numerous gallery exhibitions. Up until her death in 1985, she functioned as the primary champion of her late husband’s work.In 1991, Louis Stern
Louis Stern
Louis Stern, president of Louis Stern Fine Arts in West Hollywood, California, is a leading American art dealer with a wide range of interests and expertise. He established himself in the mid-1960s as a specialist in Impressionist and Modern art and gradually expanded his purview...
presented the first major retrospective of the artist’s work since his death. The exhibition, Alfredo Ramos Martinez (1872–1946) opened at Louis Stern Galleries in Beverly Hills on October 1 and continued through January 6, 1992. This exhibition was the foundation of the monumental Ramos Martinez’ exhibition, Alfredo Ramos Martínez (1871–1946) Une Visión Retrospectiva, at Mexico City’s renowned Museo Nacional de Arte (MUNAL) in April of that same year.
These two exhibitions became the cornerstones of a re-examination of Ramos Martinez’s work and subsequent development of the market for these works. As with the other major Mexican Modernists, indigenous peoples were the principal subjects in the mature works of Ramos Martinez. In recent years, several of these paintings have realized high prices on the international art market. His 1938 "Flowers of Mexico" brought over $4 million at Christie's
Christie's
Christie's is an art business and a fine arts auction house.- History :The official company literature states that founder James Christie conducted the first sale in London, England, on 5 December 1766, and the earliest auction catalogue the company retains is from December 1766...
in a New York auction in May 2007.