The American Folk Art Museum

http://www.folkartmuseum.org/default.asp?id=1805

Artist Martin Ramirez extended through May 13th, 2007

Brooke Davis Anderson, curator:

Martín Ramírez (1895–1963) created nearly 300 drawings of remarkable visual clarity and expressive power within the confines of DeWitt State Hospital in northern California, where he resided the last 15 years of his life. Ramírez has been codified primarily as a “schizophrenic artist”; this project promises to go beyond the boundaries of Ramírez’s diagnosis of mental illness and consider the artistic quality and merit of his artwork. In this way, Ramírez’s works will be understood—and appreciated—for the complex, multilayered drawings that they are. “Martín Ramírez,” the first major retrospective of the self-taught master in more than 20 years, will feature approximately 97 works on paper and will be accompanied by a full-color catalog.