Accompanying a major museum exhibition

showcasing the drawings of the acclaimed selftaught

artist MartÃn RamÃrez, this volume offers

a comprehensive selection of his complex and

compelling art. MartÃn RamÃrez created nearly 450 drawings of remarkable

visual clarity and expressive power while confined in a

California mental institution for more than twenty-five years.

Diagnosed as schizophrenic, he achieved posthumous fame

with recent exhibitions of his works. Eighty important drawings,

culled from public and private collections, comprehensively

survey his achievement and demonstrate that he was one of the

great draftsmen of the twentieth century. The richness of

RamÃrez s drawings and the depth of historical and cultural

influences in his work point to his deep engagement with

society. The artist s unique process employing found items,

homemade pigments, matchsticks, and large swaths of paper

is explored, as are his personal experiences of poverty, exile,

and confinement. The volume includes recent research about

RamÃrez s life, family, and art, and features examples from a

cache of previously unknown drawings by RamÃrez, whose

discovery caused a great sensation. This dazzling book displays

Ramirez s skill and inventiveness and shows why his work is

worthy of its own place in the annals of modern art.