Many of the drawings and collages from the recently revealed cache of the last works of Auburn artist Martin Ramirez will be unveiled in the next few days at two important New York locales.

Ramirez spent his last years in the DeWitt State Hospital mental institution in North Auburn. Drawings and collages from about the final three years of his life were collected by Auburn doctor Max Dunievitz and retained by his relatives after he died. An exhibition in early 2007 at Manhattan’s Folk Art Museum showing about 100 of the 300 Ramirez works known to exist at the time turned out to be a coming-out party for the self-taught Mexican-American artist’s ethereal imagery. Critics took note, in some cases, elevating him to “one of the best artists of the 20th century” status.

The Ramirez story got even better soon after when Auburn’s Peggy Dunievitz contacted the Folk Art Museum to say she had kept that stash of 144 works on her fridge in her garage for the past 20 years and was ready to reveal them to the world.

Since early 2008, the Ricco Maresca Gallery in New York has been marketing the works for prices that range as high as $350,000. The gallery will start showing a collection of the works on Thursday. About 40 works have been sold so far, with the descendents of Ramirez sharing a percentage of the proceeds with the Dunievitz heirs.

“These works continue his innovative examination of line and subject matter coupled with a bolder use of color and a greater degree of abstraction,” the gallery states in its promotion of the exhibit.

The Folk Art Museum will follow up with its own exhibition on Oct. 7. It will include three works donated to the museum by Dunievitz and the Ramirez estate.

At the same time, another set of 17 drawings by Ramirez has surfaced. These ones were given to a graduate student of psychology in the 1960s by an early supporter of Ramirez’ works, Tarmo Pasto. A psychologist who worked with mental patients at DeWitt, Pasto had encouraged Ramirez in the 1950s and even shown his work at an exhibition. The ownership of those works is under litigation.

So, Ramirez – who died in 1963 – is turning into an artist whose works will not die. His reputation is growing in stature and the latest showings in New York promise to burnish that glow of critical credibility even further.