PROPERTY FROM A SIGNIFICANT NEW YORK COLLECTION

831
MARTÍN RAMÍREZ (1895-1963)
Untitled (Landscape with Oxen and Woman)
crayon and graphite on brown paper
23 x 32¬ in.
$30,000-50,000
PROVENANCE:
Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York
This work perfectly exemplifes Martín Ramírez’s ability to
construct a personal visual language, balancing tradition
and modernity while successfully integrating the fgurative
and the abstract. Ramírez worked from memory, away from
his homeland and family during his long confnement in a
California psychiatric institution. The drawing is part of an
autobiographical oeuvre that visually narrates events and
represents meaningful places. It depicts an industrious
woman, probably his wife, plowing the land with the help
of a pair of yoked oxen. Ramírez’s work is characterized by
recurring designs and motifs, yet there are only two drawings
on this subject and no other similar version of this outstanding
composition has been identifed. The composition of this
piece is dominated by linear patterns depicting a river and
the rugged terrain of Ramírez’s property in Mexico, which is
located on a hill surrounded by an small ravine. The patterns
of repeating, concentric lines that dominate most of Ramírez’s
works are used here only to represent the grooves of the
plowed land. The central character is also not enclosed by a
proscenium. The absence of these two elements gives the
composition a unique abstract appearance and sense of
modernity. This version is also distinguished from the other
piece on the same subject by the consistency and confdence
of the lines and the skilled use of the limited materials to which
Ramírez had access. It shows the artist in complete control of
his abilities as a draftsman. The central female fgure, traced
on recycled brown paper with crayons and pencils as a simple
silhouette, produces an eerie sense that one is contemplating a
mix of Mexican and Egyptian folk art with an antique aura.
- Víctor M. Espinosa
Untitled (Landscape with Oxen and Woman) has been granted
clear title by the artist’s estate.

38
39
IMPORTANT AMERICAN
FURNITURE, SILVER,
OUTSIDER AND FOLK ART
INCLUDING THE
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN SMALL SWORD

New York 20 September 2016