It seems like Ramírez felt trapped in a land of never ending train tracks and tunnels that led to nowhere.

When going to the Martín Ramírez art exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum, which opened on Oct. 6 and runs through Jan. 13, I didn’t know what to expect. I am by no means an expert on art, but I can definitely look at something and know whether I like or not, which probably places me in the same category as a many others.

The most interesting thing about the exhibit was the background of Ramírez. He was born in Mexico and left there in 1925 to find work in the United States. As a result of struggles at home and the Great Depression, Ramírez was left homeless and unemployed on the streets of California.

He couldn’t speak English and was picked up by police and committed to a psychiatric hospital, where he was later diagnosed as a catatonic schizophrenic. Ramírez remained hospitalized for the next 32 years until his death in 1963.

During this time Ramírez created nearly 300 drawings, according to the American Folk Art Museum, who organized the exhibit.

The most common theme in Ramírez’s work is the horse and rider. He created over 80 pictures involving this theme. It was very interesting because in many of images, the depiction of the rider on the horse is almost exactly the same. The background would sometimes differ, but it was usually very similar.

Ramírez’s artwork didn’t seem very complex. The figures were simple and the background usually consisted of bold lines which were often curved, vertical and diagonal. Some of the pictures had a little color, while others none. Because he was in an institution, he didn’t have regular drawing paper available to him.

Ramírez would use paper bags, pages of magazines, newspapers or books, and glue them together with homemade adhesive, often made only of bread and his own saliva.

Another recurring theme consists of trains and tunnels. As with the horse and rider, the different pictures would often look almost exactly the same with only slight variation. In many of these pictures, the train would be coming out of one tunnel and heading towards another.

It seems like Ramírez felt trapped in a land of never ending train tracks and tunnels that led to nowhere.

Because there is such a regularity of subject matter and Ramírez didn’t date his drawings, it is nearly impossible to trace the stylistic development of his work. It would be very interesting to see his original work and how it progressed over the 32 years he was hospitalized.

This exhibit was very interesting and definitely worth seeing. Ramírez’s background was fascinating to learn about and his drawings, although fairly simple, were intriguing with their repetition and enigmatic inspiration.

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