Untitled1960–1963Sheet: 18 x 22 1/2 " (45.7 x 57.2 cm)
Frame: 26 1/2 x 31 x 1 1/2 " (67.3 x 78.7 x 3.8 cm)Gouache, crayon, pencil, color pencil and collage elements on various joined papersGift of the Family of Dr. Max Dunievitz and the Estate of Martín Ramírez
© Estate of Martín Ramírez
2014.4.101548954238P1.2008.2Martín RamírezDrawings© Estate of Martín RamírezAuburnAuburnUnited StatesCaliforniaAuburn
This work was made in Martín Ramírez’s last years, when it is typical for people to undergo a process of life review. Seminal moments in the artist’s life were associated with Catholic churches in Jalisco, where he resided until he left for the United States. The imposing church edifice in this collaged work strongly evokes Santuario del Señor de la Misericordia in Tepatitlán. The collaged image depicts the oldest operating temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in St. George, Utah, and the only one completed during Brigham Young’s tenure as president of the Mormon Church. Ramírez has manipulated the image with his own crayon coloration and pasted it within the proscenium configuration that features largely in his oeuvre. The stage setting is pieced from newspaper, including a collaged bridge that leads from the stage to the church grounds. The artist has cleverly used the density of the text to shade the fluted columns he has drawn on either side of the church; the text relates a history of the Mormons and the establishment of their Church. Although this late work was completed sometime in the early 1960s, the pages are ripped from the April 1947 issue of Arizona Highways Tourist magazine, perhaps indicating the type of reading material that was available to the occupants of the DeWitt State Hospital, where Ramírez resided for the last fifteen years of his life.
Stacy C. Hollander, "Untitled (Church Collage)," exhibition label for Jubilation|Rumination: Life, Real and Imagined. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2012.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orgP1.2008.219601963 2014 4 1
This work was made in Martín Ramírez’s last years, when it is typical for people to undergo a process of life review. Seminal moments in the artist’s life were associated with Catholic churches in Jalisco, where he resided until he left for the United States. The imposing church edifice in this collaged work strongly evokes Santuario del Señor de la Misericordia in Tepatitlán. The collaged image depicts the oldest operating temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in St. George, Utah, and the only one completed during Brigham Young’s tenure as president of the Mormon Church. Ramírez has manipulated the image with his own crayon coloration and pasted it within the proscenium configuration that features largely in his oeuvre. The stage setting is pieced from newspaper, including a collaged bridge that leads from the stage to the church grounds. The artist has cleverly used the density of the text to shade the fluted columns he has drawn on either side of the church; the text relates a history of the Mormons and the establishment of their Church. Although this late work was completed sometime in the early 1960s, the pages are ripped from the April 1947 issue of Arizona Highways Tourist magazine, perhaps indicating the type of reading material that was available to the occupants of the DeWitt State Hospital, where Ramírez resided for the last fifteen years of his life.
Stacy C. Hollander, "Untitled (Church Collage)," exhibition label for Jubilation|Rumination: Life, Real and Imagined. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2012.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.org