Martín Ramírez: The Last Works

Martín Ramírez... Untitled (Riding Forward and Back) (c. 1960-1963, Gouache, colored pencil, and pencil on lined and pieced paper). From the exhibition Martín Ramírez: The Last Works at the American Folk Art Museum in New York, NY. "...In this newly found body of work, Ramirez explored the same subjects and themes as in earlier years -- horseback riders, trains and tunnels, landscapes, Madonnas, and animals. However, it is the previously known work with a twist: the familiar motifs are tweaked in subtle ways, and scale and material, while similar, are animated by a greater use of color and a bolder exploration of abstraction. Ramirez's singularly identifiable figures, forms, line, and palette reveal an exacting and highly defined vocabulary, and they also show Ramirez to be an adventurous artist who embarked on remarkably creative explorations through endless variations on a few themes."