Los Angeles Modern Auctions (LAMA)

Born in 1871 in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, artist Alfredo Ramos Martínez was the ninth child of a large family whose patriarch was a jewelry, silver, and clothing merchant. When Martínez was only nine years of age, his drawing of the governor of Monterrey won first prize at an exhibition in San Antonio, Texas. That honor included a scholarship to study at the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes (Academy of Fine Arts) in Mexico City. Although Martínez enjoyed his artistic training, he found it too conventional and limiting given the exciting developments in Impressionism and Post-Impressionism in Europe. Martínez's family did not have the means to send him abroad, but a chance meeting with American philanthropist Phoebe Hearst at a dinner in Mexico City led to her sponsoring Martínez's trip to Paris in 1901.

Martínez stayed in Paris until 1910, during which time he made the acquaintance of many famous artists and saw their work firsthand, including Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse, Georges Seurat, and Claude Monet. However, Hearst stopped providing a monthly stipend to Martínez in 1905. From that point forward, he was required to earn his living as an artist, which he was able to do through modest yet consistent gallery sales. Martínez returned to Mexico as the country was on the verge of revolution. He became the director of his alma mater, the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes, and set up various open-air schools for pupils geared at helping them render scenes from daily life.

In 1929, Martínez relocated with his family to Los Angeles, where he settled for the rest of his life. Martínez exhibited widely in California and sold a great many works. One of Martínez's favored mediums was newsprint, which he had begun using during his time in France when he ran out of drawing paper. For the rest of his career, Martínez always carried a conté crayon in his pocket and used both Spanish and English newspapers as the foundation for various illustrations, which implicitly expressed his solidarity with working people. In contrast to this more intimate, everyday medium, Martínez also began focusing increasingly on producing large-scale public murals throughout Los Angeles and some of these vibrant compositions are still visible today.

Regarded as the father of Mexican Modernism by many, Martínez is most commonly associated with his evocative depictions of traditional Mexican people and landscapes in harmony. After his passing in 1946, works by Martínez were exhibited at Los Angeles galleries for decades to come. In 1991, Louis Stern Galleries organized the first major Martínez retrospective exhibition. The following year, a comprehensive retrospective was held at the Museo Nacional de Arte (National Museum of Art) in Mexico City. Today Martínez's work is part of the collections of numerous important institutions and his works regularly bring strong results at auction.