Auction News

Brown paper drawing with $200,000 price tag

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8 January 2025 4:55
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MARTIN-RAMIREZ-1885-1963-UNTITLED-STAG-WITH-TWO-DOGS
Image courtesy of Christie's.

An outsider art sale this month is led by a $200,000 crayon and pencil drawing on brown paper.

The piece, by Martín Ramírez (1895-1963), shows a stag.

Ramirez is one of the best known “outsider artists.”

He was born in Mexico and travelled to the US to find work in the 1920s. In 1931, out of work, he was picked up by the police and confined to a state hospital with a diagnosis of catatonic schizophrenia.

Ramirez’s picture of a stag was drawn on assembled medical paper. Image courtesy of Christie’s.

He spent the rest of his life in hospitals, starting to draw with whatever materials he could find.

A psychiatrist, Dr Tarmo Pasto, encouraged Ramirez’s art, which he later introduced to the public.

Ramirez’s situation meant his materials were unconventional. He stuck together sheets of paper used to cover operating tables. To pencils and crayons he added charcoal made from matchsticks and, reportedly, chewed newsprint to manufacture coloured paints.

Ramirez’s work is now widely recognised and has been exhibited in US, Mexican and Spanish museums and has even been featured on a US postage stamp.

This Adolf Wolfli drawing, also in the sale and tipped to make up to $80,000, shows the unconventional style typical of outsider artists. Image courtesy of Christie’s.

Christie’s, who are holding this sale in New York on January 22, say: “Known for his mesmerizing, dynamic line drawings, uses simple materials and sophisticated, self-assured marks to transform brown paper into a captivating portrait of a large stag and two dogs in a landscape.”

The picture, Untitled (Stag with two dogs), carries an estimate of $100,000 to $200,000.

It could easily become a record sale for the artist. The most valuable Ramirez to date is a $187,500 picture sold in 2021.

There are a total of 145 items in the sale, with this item and pictures by William Hawkins, Winfred Rembert, and Thornton Dial forecast to make $100,000 or above.

Many of the items are from the collection of William Louis-Dreyfus, the father of actor Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Outsider art is broadly defined as work by untrained creators from outside the conventional art world who are working for their own pleasure rather than to produce work for show.

Stylistically, outsider works are often naive or childlike, and are often made by people who are diagnosed as mentally ill or are otherwise marginalised or excluded.

Kurt Cobain was a great admirer of outsider artist Daniel Johnston, who produced songs and visual art. Cobain wore a t-shirt Johnston designed and made him a major cult figure.

Outsider art may appear unsophisticated, but it is widely appreciated and collected, sometimes commanding very high prices.

A sculpture by William Edmondson made just short of $800,000 at a 2016 sale in New York. An Adolf Wolfli drawing was sold for $795,000 in 2018.