Mel Ramos

born Sacramento, CA (USA) 1935

Along with Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg and James Rosenquist, Mel Ramos has become one of the leading exponents of American pop art. Trained at the Sacramento City College, the San Jose State College and the Sacramento State College, all in California, Mel began his career as a teacher at Elk Grove High School, Mira Lama High School and California State College.

• In 1962-63, the artist created a series of brightly colored super-heroes taken from comic strips and was first included in a collective exhibition, titled POP GOES THE EAST, at the Contemporary Art Museum, in Houston.
• In 1964, he held his first solo exhibition at the BIANCHINI GALLERY, New York.
• In 1965, he began creating his most characteristic work: Pop Art iconography using American nude pin-up girls combined with advertisements of branded products.
• In 1969, his art was first exhibited at the Whitney Museum, New York.

SELECTED MUSEUMS AND COLLECTIONS

• Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
• Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada
• Franklin House Collection, San Francisco, CA
• The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
• NY; Indianapolis Museum of Art, IN
• Kunsthaus Darmstadt, Germany
• Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
• The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
• National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
• Neue Galerie Stadt Aachen, Germany
• The Oakland Museum, CA
• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA
• Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
• Seattle Art Museum, WA
• The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

Select Timeline

Select Exhibitions

• 1970 - Pop Prints, The Museum of Modern Art New York, NY
• 1974 - Pop Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art New York, NY
• 1974 - Solo Exhibition, David Stuart Gallery New York, NY
• 1979 - Selections from the Frederick Weisman Collection of California Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art Washinton, DC
• 1980 - Mel Ramos: A Twenty Year Survey, The Rose Art Museum, Brandies University Waltham, MA
• 1984 - 1985 - Automobile and Culture, The Museum of Cotemporary Art Los Angeles, CA
• 1986 - Mel Ramos Early Paintings, Galerie Tanja Grunert Cologne, W. Germany
• 1987 - 1988 - The Artists of California: A Group Portrait in Mixed Media, The Oakland Museum Oakland, CA
• 1991 - Mel Ramos - The Heroine of 1962-64, Louis K. Meisel Gallery New York, NY
• 1996 - Attention to Detail (Realism in All Forms), Louis K. Meisel Gallery New York, NY
• 1997 - Kantor Gallery, Los Angeles
• 1997 - Mel Ramos - Oleos, Acuareias, Dibujos, Galeria Levy Madrid, Spain
• 1998 - Galerie Eikelmann & Auktionhaus Karbsten, Dusseldorf
• 1998 - Galeria Nova, Bad Homburg, Germany
• 1999 - Galerie Burkhard Eikelmann, Essen ,Germany
• 1999 - Domestica, San Giovani Valderno, Italy
• 1999 - Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven, Germany
• 1999 - Museum Moderner Kunst, Passau, Germany
• 1999 - Kunsthaus Hannover, Germany
• 1999 - Louis Meisel Gallery, New York
• 1999 - Galleria Civica di Modena, Italy
• 2000 - Galerie Burkhard Eikelmann, EXPO 2000 - Cologne, Germany
• 2000 - Galerie Vonderbank, Frankfurt, Germany
• 2000 - Kunsthaus, Cologne, Germany
• 2000 - Galerie Terminus, Munich, Germany
• 2000 - Galerie Levy, Hamburg, Germany
• 2000 - Kunstforum Frankisches Seenland, Gunzenhausen, Germany
• 2001 - Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA
• 2001 - Galeria Alvarez, Porto, Portugal
• 2001 - Palazzo dei Sette, Comune di Orvieto, Italy
• 2001 - Galerie Hilger, Vienna, Austria
• 2001 - Galleria d'Arte Maggiore, Bologna
• 2002 - Modernism, San Francisco
• 2002 - Fischerplatz Galerie, Ulm, Germany
• 2002 - Galerie Patrice Trigano, Paris, France
• 2003 - Riva Yares Gallery, Phoenix, AZ
• 2003 - Bemarducci-Meisel, New York

Select Artwork

• Peek-A-Boo Brunette #4 (lost painting of 1965 #61), 2006
• Hav-a-Havana, 2006
• I STILL GET A THRILL WHEN I SEE BILL # 6 (Leta), 1977
• The transfiguration of galatea #5, 2002
• Bisquick Barbie, 2006
• Galatea with lion #4, 2001

Quotes

Publications

• Mel Ramos Pop Art Fantasies: The Complete Paintings - by Donald Kuspit, Louis K. Meisel, Watson-Guptill Publications (August 2004)
• Mel Ramos: Heroines, Goddesses, Beauty Queens - by Mel Ramos, Belinda Grace Gardner, Thomas Levy, Kerber Verlag (February 2003)

Quick Facts

• Though primarily a figurative painter, Mel Ramos has experimented freely with realist and abstract art forms for the past twenty years.
• He has enjoyed great success and critical acclaim as an adventuresome artist with the creativity and sense of humor it takes to remain on top.
• Ramos is often associated with the Pop Art movement.
• His paintings were shown along with theirs in major exhibitions of Pop Art both in this country and in Europe and were reproduced, often with irony, in books, catalogs, and periodicals throughout the world.
• Some critical observers of the "art scene" classify Mel Ramos as a Pop Artist. However, others believe identification of Ramos' work within the Pop movement of the 1960s implies a satirical or parodic bent which does not reflect the broader context of his paintings, and instead defend his "parodies" as respectful, affectionate tributes, a celebration of images with personal meaning.

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