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Tortilla Market
Tortilla Market

Tortilla Market

Dateca. 1930s
Maker Alfredo Ramos Martínez Mexican, 1871-1946
Label TextBefore there were “Los Tres Grandes”—the Mexican muralists Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros—there was Alfredo Ramos Martínez. Born in Monterrey and educated in Mexico City and Paris, Ramos Martínez went on to lead populist curriculum reforms at the prestigious and historic Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes as its director. From there, he founded the Open Air Schools project, which brought art literally out of the academies and to the people through its program of painting out-of-doors. In this capacity, he educated a generation of Mexican artists, including Siqueiros, and, in works such as this scene of tortilla vendors, he filtered Mexican folk life through the Modernist lens of cubism and post-impressionism. His example had a profound impact not only on Mexican muralism but also on the work of many American modernists, including the Northwest artists Kenneth Callahan, Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, and William Cumming.
Object number40.56
Provenancethe artist; purchased by the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, February 1940
Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Temperas and Watercolors by Ramos Martinez, January 10 – February 4, 1940. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, American Art: The Stories We Carry, October 20, 2022 - ongoing.
Credit LineEugene Fuller Memorial Collection
Dimensions30 5/8 x 36 1/2 in. (77.8 x 92.7 cm)
MediumOil on canvas
Moose
Mel Ramos
1968
Object number: 86.243
Photo: Scott Leen
Alfredo Arreguín
1995
Object number: 2022.13
Photo: Scott Leen
Alfredo Arreguín
1974
Object number: 2023.25.1
Alfredo Arreguín
1976
Object number: 2023.25.2
Alfredo Arreguín
1985
Object number: 2023.25.3
Market Scene
Paul Bril
1600
Object number: 54.49
Double spout vase
Maria Poveka Martinez
early to mid-20th century
Object number: 81.17.1946
Photo: Elizabeth Mann
Maria Poveka Martinez
1965
Object number: 2015.4
Robert Rauschenberg
1960
Object number: 2014.25.62
Women in Nazi Society
Alfredo Zalce
1938
Object number: 95.82.7
Photo: Paul Macapia
William Ivey
1976
Object number: 83.43