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Artist or Maker: Alfredo Ramos Martinez (Mexican 1872-1946)
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Provenance: Anon. sale, Sotheby's, New York, Important Latin American Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture and Haitian Paintings, 27 November 1985, lot 127 (illustrated).
Louis Stern Fine Arts, Los Angeles.
Private collection, Mexico City.
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Exhibited: Beverly Hills, Louis Stern Galleries, Alfredo Ramos Martínez (1872-1946), October 1991 - January 1992.
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Literature: Exhibition catalogue, Alfredo Ramos Martínez (1872-1946), Beverly Hills, Louis Stern Galleries, 1991, no. 13 (illustrated in color).
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Notes: We are grateful to María Ramos Martínez Bolster, Margarita Nieto and Louis Stern for their assistance in confirming the authenticity of this work. It will be included in their forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's paintings to be published by the Alfredo Ramos Martínez Research Project.
Mexico was Alfredo Ramos Martínez's most inspiring subject throughout his long professional life. Mujeres con flores, c. 1938, is a testament to the artist's unique vision. The painting celebrates Mexico's indigenous people in a noble and monumental manner reflecting the artist's admiration and profound respect. As a student, the artist had frequently escaped the routine of academic training by leaving school to draw sketches of peones or workers. He yearned to paint his country over and over again.
Shortly after moving to California in the late 1920s, Ramos Martínez achieved critical and commercial success as he made numerous contacts with enthusiastic collectors and the artistic community there. As a result, many Hollywood celebrities and personalities of the day such as Alfred Hitchcock, Jimmy Stewart, Beulah Bondi, Edith Head and Jo Swerling, for whom he made a mural, became his avid patrons. During this artistic exile from his homeland, the artist, continued to portray his fellow countrymen--heroes, patriots, and ordinary men and women living out their daily lives in myriad ways.
In this remarkable composition, the artist relishes the beauty of his country both in its people and natural wonders. Overrun by a variety of flowers in extravagant colors, Mujeres con flores depicts two women, typical flower sellers in any Mexican market. The artist's interest in the most avant-garde tendencies is manifested in the strong arrangement of the two figures that are expressed in the geometric language of Cubism but also in Art Deco observations he has incorporated eloquently. In vogue at this time, the style conveyed glamour and refinement and was evident throughout his newly adopted city of movie stars. Nevertheless, they are grounded and appear like Aztec monuments holding the bounty of their sacred land and alluding to history as well as the present. The women stand before a luxuriant mantle of a flowering "trumpet tree" that recalls the elaborate carvings of the ancient temples of Tenochtitlan. The tree is indigenous to Mexico but also popular throughout southern Califonia gardens. A certain cadence or rhythm is palpable in the way Ramos Martínez has placed the flower baskets the women hold; they evoke the steps of the dazzling pyramids of majestic pre-Columbian civilizations.
The great modernist poet, Rubén Darío who shared an attic with the artist during his Paris stay, described Ramos Martínez's work as a "singular art" and the artist as "a painter of poems." Ramos Martínez's oeuvre is a clear break from the work produced by previous Mexican artists who, having trained in Europe, never mined their rich culture upon their return to Mexico. Ramos Martínez's fellow countrymen remained close to his heart in his many extraordinary paintings. Mujeres con flores is also one of his most poetic.
