Mel Ramos
1935–2018
Mel Ramos (1935–2018) was an American painter and is regarded as one of the pioneers of Pop Art on the American West Coast. Born in Sacramento, California, he studied at Sacramento Junior College, San Jose State College and Sacramento State College, where he graduated in 1958. His teacher and lifelong friend was Wayne Thiebaud. In the early 1960s Ramos painted superheroes and heroines from comic books. Soon afterwards came the female nudes that he paired with branded products such as Coca-Cola bottles, confectionery or fruit, which became his best-known motif. Later work includes paraphrases of art-historical masterpieces, California landscapes and sculptures. From 1966 to 1997 he taught at California State University, East Bay, in Hayward. His works are held in collections including the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Mel Ramos died in Oakland in 2018.
Works
Biography
Education 1958 Graduate degree (M.A.), Sacramento State College, Sacramento; studied with Wayne Thiebaud, among others Solo exhibitions (selection) 1964 Bianchini Gallery, New York 1967 San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco 1977 First retrospective, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland 2010 Mel Ramos. 50 Jahre Pop-Art, Kunsthalle Tübingen, Tübingen 2011 Mel Ramos: Girls, Candies & Comics, Albertina, Vienna 2011 Retrospective, Museum Villa Stuck, Munich 2012 Mel Ramos: 50 Years of Superheroes, Nudes, and Other Pop Delights, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento 2015 My Age of Pop, Ludwig Museum, Koblenz Group exhibitions (selection) 1963 Exhibition with Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles 1991 Pop Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, and Museum Ludwig, Cologne 1999 Pop Impressions, Museum of Modern Art, New York 2014 Pop Art Prints, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. Awards 1986 Visual Artists Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts Collections Museum of Modern Art, New York Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York Whitney Museum of American Art, New York San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles mumok – Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna Publications 1975 Elisabeth Claridge: Mel Ramos 1997 Robert Rosenblum: Mel Ramos. Pop Art Images, Taschen, Cologne 2002 Mel Ramos. Werkverzeichnis der Druckgrafik (catalogue raisonné of the prints) 2010 Otto Letze (ed.): Mel Ramos. 50 Jahre Pop-Art, exhibition catalogue, Kunsthalle Tübingen