Alfredo Ramos Martínez

Although considered by many to be the founding father of Modern Mexican Art, Alfredo Ramos Martinez's astounding contributions to the development of Mexican and Southern Californian art has been dramatically overlooked. A prolific painter and an innovative teacher, Ramos Martinez has been a victim of circumstance; an inexplicable lapse in memory. At a time when Mexican art gained great momentum with the Mexican Muralist movement with such recognizable names as Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco, Ramos Martinez's substantial artistic vision had all been but erased. However, a truly great artist remains just that. "If Mexican modernism the product of the 1910 Revolution, which projected not only a utopian vision of the future, but also a return to Mexico's roots," as Hans Haufe states, "Ramos Martinez stands among the painters that initiated that movement." His legacy lives on and his work is now gaining the recognition it deserves.