Before there were los tres grandes, there was Alfred Ramos Martínez, considered by many to be the founding father of Modern Mexican Art. Ramos Martínez was born on November 12, 1871, in Monterrey, Mexico. His parents were strongly supportive of young Alfredo's artistic endeavors and at the age of nine his talents were recognized at a competition in San Antonio, Texas where he was awarded first prize for his portrait of the governor of Nuevo Leon.
Ramos Martínez spent the next eight years at the prestigious Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, an experience that left him disillusioned with the system. Fed up with the monotony of drawing from plaster casts, the artist often wandered away from the academy to paint scenes from ordinary life. His work caught the attention of American, Phoebe Hearst, who arranged to financially support his studies abroad.
In 1897, Ramos Martínez arrived in Paris to continue his studies. It was here in that the artist first began to paint on newsprint. More than a decade later he returned to Mexico and was appointed the Director of the National Academy. Although he protested at first, Ramos Martinez later accepted the offer. He opened the first of his Escuelas de Pintura al Aire Libre (Open Air Schools of Painting) with ten male students, including David Alfaro Siqueiros, soon to become one of the most influential Mexican muralists.
Seeking medical attention for their daughter, the Ramos Martínez family left Mexico for the United States in 1930. They settled in Los Angeles where the daughter's condition was successfully treated. Unlike the artist's earlier works, the paintings and drawings produced in California at this time are surprisingly modern. However, the works continue to focus on the subjects he adored: the daily lives of his people and the traditions of their rich heritage.
Martinez depicts one of these subjects, the humble yet monumental Indian in this elegant portrait composed in warm tones of yellows and golds further dramatized by the texture of his chosen medium, newsprint.