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Mel Ramos was one of the most important US-American representatives of Pop Art. The artist questioned the role of the female body in advertising and consumer society by combining female nudes in the style of superhero comics with the depiction of well-known branded goods.
Born in Sacramento, California, in 1935 to Portuguese immigrants, Mel Ramos began his career as an artist by drawing comic book heroes such as Batman and Superman. As a young artist, he made portraits of figures he particularly admired. At the same time as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, from whom he was still completely independent at the time, Mel Ramos pioneered a completely new vision of modern art, which became known as Pop Art.
From Batman to Wonder Woman, Mel Ramos developed his concept of “commercial pin-ups”, in which he combined female nudes with branded products to challenge the sexualization of advertising. Mel Ramos placed his models next to cigars such as Cohiba, Havana or Davidoff, but also chocolate bars or Coca Cola bottles. In the 1970s, Mel Ramos also quoted old masters such as Manet and Modigliani in his works. Today, the artist is one of the classics of pop art with such well-known works as Martini Miss, Have a Havana, Lola Cola, Cohiba, Snickers and many others. Some critics see it as pure sexism, while others see it as an ironic depiction and satirization of an advertising industry for which sex sells. Mel Ramos died of heart failure in Oakland, California, in October 2018.
Works by Mel Ramos have long been in demand among international collectors. On February 13, 2020, the Mel Ramos painting “Hunts” achieved a respectable result of GBP 551,200.00 (EUR 657,082.00) in the evening auction at Christie’s in London. Galerie Frank Fluegel was one of the first galleries to represent the graphic work in Europe and especially in Germany.
Mel Ramos lived alternately in Oakland, California and Horta de San Juan in Spain.
The painter’s works can be seen today in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, among many others.
Vita Mel Ramos:
1935
born in Sacramento, USA
1957
BA Sacramento State College, Sacramento, USA
1958
MA Sacramento State College, Sacramento, USA
1986
National Endowment for the Visual Artists Fellowship Grant USA/France exchange scholarship
2018
died in Oakland California
Exhibitions (selection):
2017
Mel Ramos: Editions and Drawings, GALERIE FRANK FLUEGEL, Nuremberg, Germany
2015
Mel Ramos: Superman in the Supermarket, Levy Gallery, Hamburg, Germany
PotPourri, Galerie Thomas Modern, Munich, Germany
Mel Ramos peintures et sculptures, Galerie Patrice Trigano, Paris, France
2014
Beauty and the Beast, Museum of Fine Arts, Leipzig, Germany
Everybody needs a hero, Scott Richards Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA, USA
2013
Pin Up Girls GALERIE FRANK FLUEGEL, Nuremberg, Germany
Pinups & Portraits – IKON Ltd, Santa Monica, USA
2012
Mel Ramos: 50 Years of Superheroes, Nudes, and Other Pop Delights, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, USA (solo)
Museum Ritter, Waldenbuch, Germany
2010
50 Years of Pop Art, Villa Stuck, Munich, Germany (solo)
2009
Marcel Strouk, Galerie Rive Gauche, Paris, France (solo)
2008
True Romance, Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, Germany
Posing, Kunsthalle Dermstadt, Darmstadt, Germany
2007
Shining Spirit: Westheimer Family Collection, Oklahoma CIty Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, USA
2006
Life as a Legend – Marilyn Monroe, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, USA
2005
Photorealism, Then and Now, Elaine Baker Gallery, Boca Raton, USA
Girls on film, Zwirner & Wirth, New York, USA
2003
Riva Yares Gallery, Phoenix, USA
Bemarducci-Meisel, New York, USA
2000
Patrice Trigano Gallery, Paris, France
2001
Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, USA
Galeria Alvarez, Porto, Portugal Palazzo dei Sette, Comune di Orvieto, Italy
Galleria d’Arte Maggiore, Bologna, Italy
1999
Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven, Wilhelmshaven, Germany
Museum of Modern Art, Passau, Germany
Pin Up Queens, GALERIE FRANK FLUEGEL, Nuremberg, Germany
Louis Meisel Gallery, New York, USA
Galleria Civica di Modena, Modena, Italy
1997
Kantor Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
Galeria Levy Madrid, Madrid, Spain
1996
Attention to Detail (Realism in All Forms), Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York, USA
1991
Mel Ramos – The Heroine of 1962-64, Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York, USA
1987
The Artists of California: A Group Portrait in Mixed Media, The Oakland Museum, Oakland, USA
1986
Mel Ramos Early Paintings, Gallery Tanja Grunert Cologne, Germany
1984
Automobile and Culture, The Museum of Cotemporary Art, Los Angeles, USA
1980
Mel Ramos: A Twenty Year Survey, The Rose Art Museum, Brandies University, Waltham, USA
1979
Selections from the Frederick Weisman Collection of California Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washinton, D.C.
1974
Pop Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA
David Stuart Gallery, New York, USA (solo)
1970
Pop Prints, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
1964
Bianchini Gallery, New York, USA
© 2025 - Frank Fluegel Galerie
Obere Wörthstrasse 12 / 90403 Nürnberg / Germany / +49 911 23737500
Josef-Pirchl-Straße 6 / 6370 Kitzbühel / Austria
© 2025 - Frank Fluegel Galerie
Obere Wörthstrasse 12
90403 Nürnberg
Germany
+49 911 23737500
Josef-Pirchl-Straße 6
6370 Kitzbühel
Austria
