MARTIN RAMIREZ
Accompanying a major museum exhibition
showcasing the drawings of the acclaimed selftaught
artist MartÃn RamÃrez, this volume offers
a comprehensive selection of his complex and
compelling art. MartÃn RamÃrez created nearly 450 drawings of remarkable
visual clarity and expressive power while confined in a
California mental institution for more than twenty-five years.
Diagnosed as schizophrenic, he achieved posthumous fame
with recent exhibitions of his works. Eighty important drawings,
culled from public and private collections, comprehensively
survey his achievement and demonstrate that he was one of the
great draftsmen of the twentieth century. The richness of
RamÃrez s drawings and the depth of historical and cultural
influences in his work point to his deep engagement with
society. The artist s unique process employing found items,
homemade pigments, matchsticks, and large swaths of paper
is explored, as are his personal experiences of poverty, exile,
and confinement. The volume includes recent research about
RamÃrez s life, family, and art, and features examples from a
cache of previously unknown drawings by RamÃrez, whose
discovery caused a great sensation. This dazzling book displays
Ramirez s skill and inventiveness and shows why his work is
worthy of its own place in the annals of modern art.
