Ramírez was hospitalized for a good part of his life, worked within the confines of the DeWitt State Hospital in Auburn, California, using rudimentary materials to bind together various used pieces of paper into large drawing surfaces. He employed thick crayon and graphite lines to create remarkable compositions featuring images of trains, tunnels, Madonnas, horsemen, animals, and landscapes, often adding collaged elements from popular books or magazines.
WHERE: Philadelphia Museum of Art.
WHEN: On view through June 9, 2013 in the Dorrance Galleries.
TITLE: Great and Mighty Things
ABOUT: “For over three decades, Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz have assembled this extraordinary collection, and with this exhibition have promised it to the Museum. A collection-transforming gift such as this—which includes more than 200 works of art (drawings, paintings, sculptures and other objects by twenty-seven artists who worked outside the boundaries of the mainstream modern and contemporary art world) —is a rare thing and the Bonovitzes’ remarkable generosity will greatly enhance our collection by increasing our holdings in the field, and establishing the Museum as one of the primary centers for the study of outsider art in the country,” said Timothy Rub, The George D. Widener Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. “We are delighted to be able now to share with the public the creative achievements of artists who have hitherto rarely found a place in the collections and galleries of American museums.”
Born a slave on an Alabama plantation, artist Traylor created graphite and poster paint drawings on found pieces of paper or cardboard, and depicted flattened and silhouetted animals, objects, and people—sometimes calm and dignified, but often disorderly and debauched. In his late eighties, while living on the streets of Montgomery, he ingeniously composed scenes of figures running, climbing, shooting, fighting, yelling, drinking, poking, chasing, pointing, or sitting, often within or on top of strange, unidentifiable geometric structures. Storytelling made manifest, these works likely narrate a long-gone African American culture of the Deep South.
Many of these artists, whose works range in date from the 1930s to 2010, have achieved considerable reputations as well as are iconic figures among self-taught artists and have also been recognized as significant figures in the broader field of American twentieth-century art.
“This exhibition will demonstrate how works of art of enduring interest and quality can be created by people without formal training, who have limited or no connection to art dealers, critics, galleries, museums, and schools,” stated Ann Percy, the Museum’s Curator of Drawings. “In this exhibition, I believe that visitors will discover new and surprising aspects of the art of the 20th and 21st centuries in the United States.”
MORE DETAILS: Call 215.763.8100, or www.philamuseum.org.