Martin Ramírez was among many Mexicans lured to America in the 1920s by the promise of work. He made the journey by train and worked for a time on the railroads and in mines. But in 1931, he was detained for vagrancy and subsequently admitted to a psychiatric hospital where he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He spent his remaining thirty-two years institutionalized. Around 1950, he began to draw images that combine memories of his homeland, such as this parish church, with highly abstracted images evoking a profound sense of displacement and loss.
- Title
-
Untitled (Church)
- Artist
- Date
- ca. 1950
- Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 31 3⁄4 x 37 1⁄8 in. (80.8 x 94.2 cm) irregular
- Credit Line
-
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- crayon, pencil, and watercolor on various joined papers
- Classifications
- Highlights
- Keywords
-
- Animal – donkey
- Architecture Exterior – religious – church
- Object Number
-
1986.65.192
- Palette
- Linked Open Data
- Linked Open Data URI
