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Florida Mexicana depicts an Indigenous Mexican woman offering a large bowl of vibrant flowers. Alfredo Ramos Martínez balances sculptural form with a focus on pattern and color to create an image that is at once modern and retrospective. Despite being painted in 1936 at the height of the Great Depression, in the midst of the Dust Bowl, Ramos Martínez provides an idyllic scene of bountiful nature. The woman becomes an allegorical symbol of spring, new life, and hope.

Florida Mexicana was painted after Ramos Martínez immigrated to California. His style draws on inspirations from Mesoamerican art and his knowledge of turn-of-the-twentieth-century French painting, like that of Paul Gauguin, which he gained through studies in Paris.

Details

  • Title: Florida Mexicana
  • Creator: Alfredo Ramos Martinez
  • Date Created: 1936
  • Physical Dimensions: 36 × 30 in. (91.4 × 76.2 cm)
  • Provenance: to Estate of Alfredo Ramos Martínez, 1946; by descent to Maria Sodi de Ramos Martínez [d. 1985] (Artist’s widow); (Dalzell Hatfield Galleries, Los Angeles, CA); purchased by Edwin Janss [1914-1989], Los Angeles, CA, ca. 1950s; by descent to Dagny Janss Corcoran (his daughter), Los Angeles, CA, 1989; to (Christie’s Private Sales, London, England); purchased by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, 2015
  • Subject Keywords: women
  • Rights: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas.
  • External Link: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
  • Medium: Oil on canvas

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