FATHER OF MEXICAN ART- NUNS AT PRAYER

As the renowned Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío wrote, "Ramos Martínez is one of those who paints poems; he does not copy, he interprets; he understands how to express the sorrow of the fisherman and the melancholy of the village.”

 He was born in 1871 in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, the ninth child to a successful merchant trading in jewelry, fine fabrics, silver, embroidered suits and hand-woven sarapes from Saltillo. All members of the Ramos Martínez family were involved with their father's business and it was expected that the artist, too, would one day join the ranks of "honorable merchant". However, Alfredo’s evident talent and instincts propelled him towards a career in the arts; a choice that his family ultimately supported.

 From an early age he was winning awards for his art. At the age of nine, one of his drawings, a portrait of the governor of Monterrey, was sent to an exhibition in San Antonio, Texas, where he won first prize.

 He studied at the most prestigious school  in Mexico. The Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.   hough he found the teaching methods at the Academy repressive and counter-intuitive to his more emotional  impulses,  he created enough work to sell while still a student. 

 Gratifying as his youthful accomplishments were, the news from France, and the examples of the brilliance of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists, persuaded the young painter that he needed to be in Europe to continue his education and define his career. Though his family was by no means poor, they did not have funds to support his European dream. 

While in Paris, Alfredo attended various artistic and literary salons and made the acquaintance of the modernist Nicaraguan  poet, Rubio Dario.  He was then invited into the  circle of rather extraordinary bon vivants such as Isadora Duncan, Paul Verlaine, Eleonora Duse, and Anna Pavlova. Though sales of his artwork were proceeding, and Alfredo had achieved a degree of comfort as a 'Parisian', in 1909 he felt a strong desire to return home to Mexico.By this time Mexico was a nation in turmoil. The Mexican Revolution  was beginning  and the 30-year rule of President Porfirio Diaz was on the verge of collapse. The art students at the NationalAcademy called a strike in order to protest the 'aesthetic dictatorship' of the Academy. They demanded the establishment of a 'FreeAcademy' and proposed Ramos Martínez as director due to his success in Europe.

Despite all the politics, the Open Air Schools flourished and Ramos Martínez was acknowledged as a true innovator in the Mexican art world and frequently called the 'Father of Modern Mexican Art'. To quote Ramón Alva de la Canal, "...the true force behind contemporary Mexican painting wasn't Diego Rivera; it was Alfredo Ramos Martínez."

Ramos Martínez' art pedagocial ideas were introduced in Japan by the Japanese painter Tamiji Kitagawa, who worked as a teacher at the Open Air Schools in Tlalpan and Taxco during the 1920s and 1930s, and became an influential figure in the liberal art education movement in postwar Japan.

While Ramos Martínez invested most of his energy in teaching and the establishment of his Open Air Schools, he also continued his own work as a painter. In 1923, he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold by King Albert I of Belgium in recognition of his contributions to the visual arts. In 1928, Ramos Martínez married Maria de Sodi Romero of Oaxaca. 

Their daughter, Maria was born one year later, suffering from a crippling bone disease. Alfredo resigned as Director of the Academy and sought treatment for his daughter's condition. The family first traveled to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and eventually settled in the milder climate of Los Angeles.

Albert Bender (art collector who was one of the leading patrons of the arts in San Francisco in the 1920s and 1930s. He played a key role in the early career of Ansel Adams and was one of Diego Rivera's first American patrons. ) became a lifelong friend of the artist and acquired numerous works for his personal collection. He also purchased and donated Ramos Martínez works to several San Francisco institutions, including the Legion of Honor, the San Francisco Museum of Art, the California Historical Society, and Mills College.

In addition to his mastery of all conventional media including drawing, printmaking, watercolor, and painting, Alfredo was an extremely skilled muralist who excelled in the technically challenging art of traditional fresco painting. 

Alfredo died unexpectedly at the age of 73  in 1946, in Los Angeles. He was buried at HolyCrossCemetery in Culver City, California. At the time of his death, he was working on a series of murals entitled "The Flower Vendors" at Scripps College.The unfinished murals have been preserved as a tribute to the artist.