FREE: FIVE NEW FOREVER STAMPS 'MARTIN RAMIREZ'-they are sooo cool- Issue Date:March 26, 2015

The listing, FIVE NEW FOREVER STAMPS 'MARTIN RAMIREZ'-they are sooo cool- Issue Date:March 26, 2015 has ended.

Martin Ramirez
5 Stamp Designs-One of each
Although confined to psychiatric hospitals for more than 30 years, artist Martin Ramirez (1895-1963) produced more than 450 dynamic drawings and collages imbued with hypnotic power. Through the use of repeating lines and idiosyncratic motifs, Ramirez transcended his own situation to create a remarkably visualized world free from the constraints of borders and, even, of time itself.


The sheet of 20 self-adhesive stamps features details from five of Ramirez’s drawings. The first row of stamps highlights a floral detail from “Untitled (Horse and Rider with Trees)” from 1954. The second row of stamps showcases the central image of “Untitled (Man Riding Donkey)” from circa 1960-1963. The third row of stamps shows a detail from “Untitled (Trains on Inclined Tracks)” from circa 1960-1963. The fourth row of stamps showcases the central image of “Untitled (Deer),” which dates from circa 1960-1963. And the fifth row of stamps features a detail from “Untitled (Tunnel with Cars and Buses)” from 1954. The sheet’s verso includes brief text about Ramirez and his importance to 20th-century American art.

Born near Guadalajara, Ramirez left Mexico for the U.S. in 1925. Like other migrant workers during this period, he worked in mines and on the railroad but was hit hard by the Great Depression. Emotionally upset and in poor physical condition, he was detained by police in 1931 and, unable or unwilling to communicate, was soon committed to a psychiatric hospital. He remained institutionalized for the rest of his life.

After several attempts to escape from the psychiatric hospital, Ramirez began to draw obsessively. Over the next 32 years, he created a series of large-scale drawings-from two feet to more than 20 feet long-that blend the emotional and physical landscapes of his life in Mexico with the modern popular culture of the U.S.First-Class Mail® one-ounce rate.