Books &Arts
Martin Ramirez

52. Spit and crayons
Nov 6th 2008 From The Economist print edition

The animating spirit of life in a psychiatric institution

52-1-236
MARTIN RAMIREZ spent most of his adult life in mental hospitals. He taught himself to paint, using whatever he could lay his hands on: food, pencils, crayons, shoe polish, even his own saliva coloured by chewing up newspaper illustrations. To make the huge pieces of paper he liked to work on, he used newspaper, grocery bags and thin medical-examination sheets, glued together with a paste of spit and mashed potatoes. For decades he has been considered an oddball artist, America's answer to Richard Dadd.
Then in January 2007 the American Folk Art Museum in New York mounted a retrospective of Ramirez's work. Brooke Davis Anderson, the curator, publicised the show in local papers around Auburn, California, where Ramirez had been hospitalised, in the hope that people would come forward with new undocumented works. After a few false leads, she received a brief e-mail from the descendants of Max Dunievitz, who had been a medical officer at DeWitt State Hospital in Auburn in the early 1960s. When Ms Anderson flew out to California, she discovered the family had more than 120 pictures in good condition, stored in boxes in a garage. These were the artist's last works, created between 1960 and 1963, the year he died.

A. 어휘
spit 침. animate 생기며 주다, 생명을 주다. psychiatric 정신병학의, 정신병치료의.
institution 기관, 학회, 공공단체. psychiatric institution 정신요양소. polish 광택제.
saliva 침. illustration 揷畵(삽화). glue 접착시키다. paste 풀, 밀가루 반죽.
mash 갈아 으깨다, 짓이기다. oddball 괴짜.
Richard Dadd [(1817-1886) 영국의 화가. 정신병으로 고통 당함].
mount 올려놓다, 준비하다, 공연하다.
retrospective 回顧的(회고적)인, 回顧展示會(회고전시회). curator 관장, 관리자.
publicise 발표하다. undocumented 정식 서류를 갖추지 않은, 典據(전거)가 없는.
state hospital 州立病院(주립병원). lead (문제해결의) 단서, 실마리. store 저장하다. garage 자동차 차고.

52-2-237
Thanks to that earlier show, Ramirez's work has enjoyed a complete reappraisal. Far from being a kooky outsider who merely exorcised images from his subconscious, he is now understood as an artist inspired by the imagery of his hard life. His hundreds of drawings and collages vibrate with a rare intensity of hypnotic lines and warmly muted colours. Subjects and symbols are constantly reiterated in his distinctive, obsessive style. 'There is something remarkable going on here,' says Nancy Druckman, head of Sotheby's American folk art department.
Now a new show at the American Folk Art Museum features 25 previously unseen pictures from the Dunievitz collection. A cartoonish man on a horse gazes at the viewer, melancholic, vulnerable and isolated on a stagea train rounds a bend of reverberating curves and enters a mysteriously dark tunnelarches are arranged in a portentous grida Madonna looms tall, beatific and symmetrical, like a chess queen. Seen together, they evoke a narrative of lonesome migration and nostalgia for what was left behind.
Born in 1895 in Jalisco, Mexico, Ramirez travelled to California in the 1920s in search of work to support his family. With no formal education, he busied himself as a sharecropper and day-labourer, working on railways and in mines until the Depression hit. In 1931 he was arrested, haggard, confused and unable to communicate in English. He was diagnosed with catatonic schizophrenia and spent the next 32 years in mental asylums. It was during this period, particularly the 15 later years he spent at DeWitt, that he created hundreds of drawings and collages. It was his life's work. He hardly spoke to anyone.

A. 어휘
thanks to ...때문에. reappraisal 재평가. kooky 괴짜의, 미친.
outsider 局外者(국외자), 門外漢(문외한). exorcise ...에서 귀신을 몰아내다.
subconscious 잠재의식의. inspire 고무하다, 격려하다, 영감을 주다. collage 콜라즈.
vibrate 진동하다. intensity 강렬함. hypnotic 최면술의, 최면상태의.
muted 소리를 죽인, 無言(무언)의. subject 주제. reiterate 반복하다.
distinctive 독특한. obsessive 강박관념의. remarkable 두드러진, 주목 할만한.
feature 특별 전시하다, ... 을 특별인기거리로 하다, 특종으로 하다.
collection 수집품, 소장품. cartoonish 만화의. viewer (미술작품을) 보는 사람.
melancholic 우울한. vulnerable 저항력이 없는, 상처받기 쉬운. round 돌다, 일주하다.
bend 길의 모퉁이, 굴곡. reverbrate 屈折(굴절)하다, 울려 퍼지다.
mysterious 신비로운, 모호한, 不可思議(불가사의)한. arrange 배열하다.
portentous 불길한, 凶兆(흉조)의. grid 쇠창살. loom 희미하게 나타나다.
beatific 행복에 넘친, 至福(지복)을 가져오는. symmetrical 대칭적인.
evoke 喚起(환기)하다. narrative 이야기. lonesome 외로운, 쓸쓸한.
migration 移住(이주).
sharecropper (노예폐지 후 미국 남부에 생긴) 物納 小作人(물납 소작인).
Depression 1930년대의 경제대공황. haggard 초췌한. diagnose 진단하다.
catatonic (정신병의) 긴장의. schizophrenia 정신분열증. mental asylum 정신병원.