It’s a low, slow, pre-holiday. I was feeling uninspired until Liz came home and threw the summer print edition of Rain Taxi on the living room table. I quickly ran my eyes down the list of authors and found a review of Brooke Davis Anderson’s book, MARTÍN RAMÍREZ.
Anderson is curator of “Martín Ramírez,” a retrospective that features 97 of the artist’s works on paper. I’m constantly running into reviews of the show, starting with a Sunday Morning a few months ago. I tend to pay attention if something keeps bopping me in the face.
Born in Jalisco, Mexico, Ramírez (1885-1960) was a self-taught artist, who after a series of hardships, spent the latter half of his life in California mental institutions. Rain Taxi reviewer, Eliza Murphy, gives high praise to Anderson’s book:
Curator Brooke Davis Anderson has not only orchestrated a phenomenal retrospective of Ramírez’s impressive output, but here gathers scholarly essays that offer a range of perspectives on the artist, inviting “critics, curators, collectors, dealers, and writers to move beyond the ‘sound bites’ of the past fifty years to a more holistic understanding of his work.”
The Ramírez retrospective continues to tour, and recently moved from an extended stay at the American Folk Art Museum in New York City, to the San Jose Museum of Art. The only Midwest date begins October 6th, at the Milwaukee Art Museum.
All this is driving me to think about a short trip east when the leaves turn. Like Minnesota, Wisconsin is beautiful in the Fall. Liz says it’s 5 hours, 34 minutes, and 345 miles, a long drive for a weekend stay.
But I’ve never seen the Milwaukee Art Museum’s white concrete Quadracci Pavilion designed by Spanish architect, Santiago Calatrava. The building alone looks like a work of art.
Two for the price of one; maybe it would be worth the drive.
-related to post, Joan Didion & Martín Ramírez
MORE INFORMATION & RESOURCES:
American Folk Art Museum, MARTÍN RAMÍREZ
MARTÍN RAMÍREZ
By Brooke Davis Anderson, with essays by Víctor M. Espinosa and Kristin E. Espinosa, Daniel Baumann, and Victor Zamudio-Taylor, a foreword by Maria Ann Conelli, and an introduction by Robert Storr.
- Published by Marquand Books in association with the American Folk Art Museum, 2007 (192 pages, 137 full-color illustrations, hardcover, $55).
- Available exclusively at the American Folk Art Museum Book and Gift Shop or through the publisher, Marquand Books.
MARTÍN RAMÍREZ Travel Schedule:
- Mexican Heritage Plaza/San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California
June 9–September 9, 2007 - Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
October 6, 2007–January 6, 2008
Outside In, Art Review | Martín Ramírez by Roberta Smith, New York Times, Art & Design, Jan 26th, 2007
Art Brut , Phyllis Kind Gallery, Self-Taught Art
Martín Ramírez at Marquand Books: “Martín Ramírez … is my favorite outsider artist. Come to that, he’s one of my favorite artists, period.” Article by Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker.
Silent Artist Has Voice After Death: Confined To A Mental Ward, Martín Ramírez Refused To Talk, But Spoke Through His Art by Caitlin A. Johnson, CBS Sunday Morning, March 25, 2007
-posted on red Ravine, Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007
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