Mel Ramos

(American, 1935-2018)

“I try to work every day, even when I’m not motivated. Ritual is very important to me.”
— Mel Ramos

Melvin John (Mel) Ramos’ mixture of figurative and abstract art celebrated the mass media and pop culture movement. His subjects often incorporate commercially produced items, such as Coca Cola with his signature nude women.

Ramos was born in Sacramento in the summer of 1935 to Portuguese-Azorean immigrants who had recently arrived in the United States. He completed high school in 1954 and then he attended Sacramento City College. He finished his bachelor’s degree at San Jose State College. During this time, he became interested in the female nude and practiced sketching, producing many drawings of voluptuous women either nude or partially nude. In 1955, he and Leta, a model often featured in his earlier work, fell in love and they married later that year.

In 1957, Sacramento State College accepted him into their master’s program where he studied under Pop artist Wayne Thiebaud. Ramos also taught art at local high schools Mira Loma and Elk Grove and frequently participated in group exhibitions. Along with Thiebaud, Claes Oldenburg, James Rosenquist, and Tom Wesselmann, Ramos created artworks that spoke to aspects of popular culture as shown in mass media, for example, a series of nude women and candy wrappers. Besides Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, he was also one of the first artists to do paintings of images from comic books, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art exhibited works of the three together in 1963.

In 1964, his first exhibition opened at the Bianchini Gallery in New York and established him as a notable artist. In 1966, he became a professor at the California State University, where he maintained the position for over 30 years. Louis K. Meisel Gallery represented Ramos starting in 1971. The Albertina in Vienna held a major exhibition of his work in 2011. A retrospective of over 50 years of his work opened at the Crocker Art Museum in his hometown of Sacramento on June 2, 2012. Ramos participated in more than 120 group shows before he died of heart failure at age 83 in Oakland, California on October 14, 2018. Major pop art exhibitions in the U.S. and in Europe have shown his paintings, and throughout the world, books, catalogs, and periodicals reproduce his work.

American Fine Art, Inc. is proud to feature the original works and limited editions of Mel Ramos. Visit our 12,000 sq. ft. showroom in Scottsdale, Arizona or call today. Our website is offered only as a limited place to browse or refresh your memory and is not a reflection of our current inventory. To learn more about collecting, pricing, value, or any other art information, please contact one of our International Art Consultants. We look forward to giving you the one on one attention you deserve when building your fine art collection. We hope you find our website helpful and look forward to seeing you in Scottsdale soon.