I just heard a terrific Wisconsin Public Radio show featuring the chief curator of the Milwaukee Art Museum. Through January 13, 2008, self-taught folk artist Martín Ramírez (1895–1963) is the subject of their featured exhibition. He came to the United States from Mexico in 1925 and worked on the railroad and in the mines of Northern California for 5 years before he was picked up for homelessness and institutionalized. He spent the last 30 years of his life in "asylums", probably wrongly diagnosed as schizophrenic, making large scale drawings and collages which were thrown away (for 15 years!) until a professor, curiously of both psychology and art, happened upon some of his work while visiting the asylum. It was thought for a long time that many of his paintings depicted the Statue of Liberty until the art world realized they were Madonnas modeled on those of his Spanish Catholic roots. Kathleen Dunn, host of the WPR program, raved about the sheer beauty of the pieces, which is all the more incredible as one learns that he used available materials such examining room paper, cups from the water cooler, and mashed potato paste and oatmeal for glue for his collages.
This Wikipedia article has some good links.
I haven't seen the museum since the "wings" were added in 2001, but this story is great motivation for a road trip
2 comments:
This sounds wonderful--let's go! I was especially intrigued by the fact that he had to use the stuff he had at hand--being into the "found" thing as I am. I love the idea of being so artistically driven that you are forced to create with whatever you have.
And I even left out the "saliva" ingredient. Imagine what he would have done with actual art materials, though I believe the art professor who conserved his work did provide him with art supplies at a later date. I wonder how the lack affected his output both before and after.
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