Leah Gorence ’28
Staff Writer
Scripps College’s Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery presented “Pintor de Poemas: Unseen Works by Alfredo Ramos Martínez,” an exhibition guest-curated by alum Robin Dubin ’12, who is the director of Louis Stern Fine Arts. The show features 25 works by Ramos Martínez, known as the father of Mexican modernism. His mural, “Las Vendedoras de Flores (The Flower Vendors)” is located in Scripps’ Margaret Fowler Memorial Garden.
Many of the 25 works have never been exhibited publicly, and by showcasing a broader collection of Ramos Martínez’s art, the exhibition aims to disrupt traditional perceptions of his work and argue that his art is both bold and political.
“He became known during the time that he lived in LA for romanticized portrayals of women selling flowers and the Mexican landscape,” said Dr. Erin M. Curtis, Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler Director of the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery. “Within art history, this work has been dismissed as decorative. This exhibition seeks to challenge that characterization of his work.”
The gallery is organized thematically around Ramos Martínez’s engagement with revolution and political organizing related to labor movements, Indigenismo and the promotion of Indigenous identity within Mexico, and war and racial violence.
Ramos Martínez’s work displays several common characteristics. His pieces often feature crowds of overlapping people, a technique that represents repetitive labor and the power of organized people. While his scenes are largely rural, depicting rural labor such as selling flowers, making shoes, or making pulque, he often has one person in the crowd who meets the viewer’s gaze.
“Ramos Martínez is working to evoke empathy and connection between the viewer and his subjects,” said. Curtis. “But also, his subjects are addressing us as viewers and perhaps challenging us to engage with their struggle.” A series of Ramos Martínez’s art was done over copies of the LA Times, such as “El Defensor (The Protector),” which the Williamson Gallery used in their promotion of the exhibit.
As a lifelong pacifist, Ramos Martínez’s beliefs greatly inspired his work. He lived through the Mexican Revolution but pointedly refused to fight. The exhibit features several paintings centered on war and violence, one of them including, “The War That Binds Us All” which speaks to the collective toll of violence.
“You get a sense that he is making a statement about all war,” said Curtis. “Ultimately, no matter what side we are on, we’re all kind of drawn into these cycles of violence. I think he’s trying to get at the idea that no one benefits ultimately when these great atrocities are being done.”
This exhibition is important to Scripps, specifically, because the college houses an iconic Ramos Martinez mural, “The Flower Vendors,” in the Margaret Fowler Garden.
“I think that The Flower Vendors has unintentionally ended up playing a part in this characterization of Ramos Martínez,” said Dr. Curtis. “It depicts beautiful women selling flowers. It’s in a walled garden on a women’s college campus. People looked at it through a lens of real bias, dismissing it as beautiful and decorative, when in fact it’s a depiction of Indigenous women’s labor that he painted on native land. Ultimately, there is real strength and value in reconsidering the mural and its relationship to the Scripps campus.”
However, with the upcoming 80th anniversary of the mural, the exhibition was crafted to be more authentic to Ramos Martínez’s complete work.
“It would have been very easy to do a more traditional celebration of the mural and its beauty,” said Dr. Curtis. “It would be so easy not to pause and delve more deeply into its history. But that was not the purpose of this exhibition.”
The mural was painted during a period of a lot of deportations and racialized violence against Mexican people in Los Angeles, making its depiction of Indigenous women a strong act of resistance.
“The mural itself is a really powerful political statement, and it has not been interpreted as such for a very long time”, said Curtis.
“Pintor de Poemas: Unseen Works by Alfredo Ramos Martínez” is currently on display at the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery until December 14, 2025. The exhibition is presented in both English and Spanish.
Photo Courtesy of Kate Prince ’29
