Tortilla Market

Alfredo Ramos Martínez

ca. 1930s

Oil on canvas

Seattle Art Museum

A group of people wearing white clothing and wide-brimmed hats are gathered in a circle, some kneeling and some standing. They appear to be engaged in a communal activity around a central object. A group of people wearing white clothing and wide-brimmed hats are gathered in a circle, some kneeling and some standing. They appear to be engaged in a communal activity around a central object. Before 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 th