Estelle Hanania

2021 Lemaire projects (commissioned)

Consecrated belatedly as one of the greatest self-taught master draftsmen of the 20th century, Martín Ramírez had a tragic destiny marked by the trials of migration, labor exploitation, cultural displacement and forced isolation : his work is a powerful testimony to this. In 1925, leaving his family behind, he entered the United States to work in the mines and in the construction of railways. A few years later, subject to mental disorders, he was hospitalised before being sentenced to involuntary confinement for the rest of his life.

As a continuation of the Fall-Winter 2020 collection, Lemaire has created a capsule wardrobe in light fabrics based on figurative and abstract drawings by Mexican artist Martín Ramírez [1895 – 1963]: Made up of unisex shirts, tops, skirts, dresses, jackets, a scarf and a bag, it is inspired by the clear-line illustrations, Madonna, Boat and Canal, Landscape, Horse and Rider 1 and 2, faithfully transposed to their original format. In an atmosphere of fawn tones, the printed motifs play hide and seek in imaginary topographies and the characters metamorphose to the rhythm of moving bodies.