Alfredo Ramos Martinez

The Margaret Fowler Memorial Garden at Scripps College in Claremont is one of Southern California's least-celebrated but best-loved hideaways. Scripps students and alumnae know the walled retreat--with its cloisters, central pool, giant wisteria, tiny chapel and expansive mural--as the most beautiful place on an idyllic campus.

It takes a little effort to reach this community of picture-perfect bungalows, exotic gardens and broad beaches. Approaching from San Diego, one must cross the 2-mile toll bridge, take the pedestrian ferry or follow the peninsula via Imperial Beach. That makes commuting a challenge, but it doesn't stop 2 million people from visiting every year. "People love a good excuse to come to Coronado," says Cynthia B. Malinick, executive director of the Coronado Historical Assn.

The old Avenida Cafe in Coronado was scheduled to fall under the wrecking ball until one of the workers noticed the strange blue coloring behind a falling layer of wallpaper. As he peeled away the wallpaper, a work of art was revealed before his eyes. He had found the last of three frescoes painted at the cafe by Mexican muralist Alfredo Ramos Martinez.

The old Avenida Cafe in Coronado was scheduled to fall under the wrecking ball until one of the workers noticed the strange blue coloring behind a falling layer of wallpaper. As he peeled away the wallpaper, a work of art was revealed before his eyes. He had found the last of three frescoes painted at the cafe by Mexican muralist Alfredo Ramos Martinez.

It takes a little effort to reach this community of picture-perfect bungalows, exotic gardens and broad beaches. Approaching from San Diego, one must cross the 2-mile toll bridge, take the pedestrian ferry or follow the peninsula via Imperial Beach. That makes commuting a challenge, but it doesn't stop 2 million people from visiting every year. "People love a good excuse to come to Coronado," says Cynthia B. Malinick, executive director of the Coronado Historical Assn.

Regarding "Forgotten Splendors" (Calendar: Oct. 16): Suzanne Muchnic is to be commended for "rediscovering" the treasures of Mexican artist Alfredo Ramos Martinez and for sharing a glimpse of his work. An added dimension to this interesting scenario is that the artist's daughter, Maria Ramos Martinez Bolster, who lives in the Los Angeles area, was an onlooker during the three-hour final phase of removing the featured mural from its 57-year "hiding place" in Beverly Hills. And she was standing all the while, despite her lifelong physical handicaps, which forced Ramos Martinez to deny himself the joy of residing in the country of his birth and his people, even though, as Louis Stern puts it, he was already considered "a national treasure."

Alfredo Ramos Martinez is back. The Mexican artist was a big name in Los Angeles during the '30s and '40s when he lived here and did his best work. A powerful painter of monumental portraits and evocative Mexican themes, he exhibited his paintings in local galleries and museums, accepted commissions from Hollywood luminaries and painted murals on garden walls. When he died at 73, in 1946, he left a vast, unfinished mural in the Margaret Fowler Memorial Garden at Scripps College in Claremont.

Dubbed an "illustrious unknown" recently by one writer, Mexican painter and muralist Alfredo Ramos Martinez has finally begun to command his own limelight, after 50 posthumous years in the shadows of the Big Three--Siqueiros, Orozco and Rivera. Since 1991, several retrospective exhibitions have restored deserved luster to Ramos Martinez's reputation.

A painting by Mexican artist Alfredo Ramos Martinez, expected to bring $350,000 to $450,000 in an auction of Latin American art, was sold for $1.8 million Tuesday night at Christie's New York. Fetching more than twice the top auction price previously paid for the artist's work, the colorful scene of two women surrounded by flowers was the star attraction in a $17-million sale that also brought record prices for 10 other artists.

AS students rush to classes at USC, an outdoor artwork near Fisher Gallery invites them to slow down and think about a shameful chapter of U.S. history. Created by Jenny Holzer in 1999 and simply titled "Blacklist," the landscaped retreat recalls the period in the late 1940s and early '50s when the House Un-American Activities Committee subpoenaed citizens suspected of being communist sympathizers to testify about their political beliefs.

Dubbed an "illustrious unknown" recently by one writer, Mexican painter and muralist Alfredo Ramos Martinez has finally begun to command his own limelight, after 50 posthumous years in the shadows of the Big Three--Siqueiros, Orozco and Rivera. Since 1991, several retrospective exhibitions have restored deserved luster to Ramos Martinez's reputation.

The Margaret Fowler Memorial Garden at Scripps College in Claremont is one of Southern California's least-celebrated but best-loved hideaways. Scripps students and alumnae know the walled retreat--with its cloisters, central pool, giant wisteria, tiny chapel and expansive mural--as the most beautiful place on an idyllic campus.

Regarding "Forgotten Splendors" (Calendar: Oct. 16): Suzanne Muchnic is to be commended for "rediscovering" the treasures of Mexican artist Alfredo Ramos Martinez and for sharing a glimpse of his work. An added dimension to this interesting scenario is that the artist's daughter, Maria Ramos Martinez Bolster, who lives in the Los Angeles area, was an onlooker during the three-hour final phase of removing the featured mural from its 57-year "hiding place" in Beverly Hills. And she was standing all the while, despite her lifelong physical handicaps, which forced Ramos Martinez to deny himself the joy of residing in the country of his birth and his people, even though, as Louis Stern puts it, he was already considered "a national treasure."

Alfredo Ramos Martinez is back. The Mexican artist was a big name in Los Angeles during the '30s and '40s when he lived here and did his best work. A powerful painter of monumental portraits and evocative Mexican themes, he exhibited his paintings in local galleries and museums, accepted commissions from Hollywood luminaries and painted murals on garden walls. When he died at 73, in 1946, he left a vast, unfinished mural in the Margaret Fowler Memorial Garden at Scripps College in Claremont.

Belle Baranceanu's life as an artist reads like a novella, an intriguing story of limited scope. Key characters emerge, themes are pursued and tensions partially resolved -- all in a few, compact chapters. Within her 86 years (1902-88), Baranceanu's life as an artist of note spanned just more than a decade.

"Where are you two going for your weekend?" "Claremont." "Montclair? Where's that?" "Claremont. About 30 miles east of here." "Is that all? Don't you want to take a real trip?" Actually, this is a real trip, although you'd never guess it from the map. Stroll the streets of this little foothill town, and at times you'd think you were in the Midwest, or maybe the South. Look at it from a certain angle, and you'd swear you're not in California anymore, Toto.