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MARTIN RAMIREZ: PINTOR MEXICANO 1885-1960
(RAMIREZ, MARTIN). Littman, Roberto R. With Texts By Octavio Paz, Roger Cardinal, Elsa Weiner Longhauser, Roberta Smith, Russell Bowman, Randall S. Morris & Nelson Oxman. Mexico City, MEXICO: Centro Cultural Arte Contemporaneo, A. C., 1989. First Edition 1/1000. 4to. Illustrated Self-Wrappers. Artist Monograph. Fine.. 194pp, profusely illustrated in color and b&w. Text in Spanish. With an exhibition checklist, bibliography and exhibition history. This is the comprehensive catalogue published in conjunction with Mexico City's Centro Cultural Arte Contemporaneo 1989 retrospective of works on paper by the Mexican-born artist Martin Ramirez who, from 1930 until his death in 1960 was institutionalized as a chronic paranoid schizophrenic in a Northern California Mental Hospital. In 1968 his work came to the attention of Chicago artist Jim Nutt, who was then teaching in Sacramento. Three years later Nutt and his dealer Phyllis Kind purchased, restored, and brought to the attention of the art world the entirety of some three hundred surviving artworks. The rest is Outsider Art history... This exhibition of eighty-one of these exceedingly fragile works was the largest show of Ramirez' art at the time, and each piece was newly photographed and illustrated for this publication. A most handsome example of this uncommon item limited to one thousand unnumbered copies. 968-6191-13-5 Inventory Number: 025390