Mel Ramos

Collection of the Artist, Oakland
Studio Trisorio, Naples
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 1987

New York, Bianchini Gallery, Mel Ramos, 1964
Oakland, The Oakland Museum, Ramos: A Retrospective Survey, 1977
Waltham, The Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Mel Ramos: A Twenty Year Survey, 1980
Naples, Studio Trisorio, Mel Ramos: Paintings 1964-1978, 1987
Sienna, Palazzo delle Papesse, De Gustibus: Collezione Privata Italiana, 2002, p. 184, illustrated in colour
Naples, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Donna Regina Napoli, People: Volti, Corpi e Segnie Contemporanei dalla Collezione di Ernesto Esposito, 2006, p. 113, illustrated in colour
Bologna, Museo Mambo, Cara Domani: Opere dalla Collezione Ernesto Esposito, 2012, p. 3, illustrated in colour

Elizabeth Claridge, The Girls of Mel Ramos, Chicago 1975, p. 75, illustrated
Robert Rosenblum, Mel Ramos: Pop Art Images, Cologne 1994, p. 19, illustrated in colour
Donald Kuspit, Mel Ramos Pop Art Fantasies: The Complete Paintings, New York 2004, p. 92, illustrated in colour

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate although the white towards the centre is slightly warmer in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Close inspection reveals faint and unobtrusive drip marks towards the centre of the upper edge, and very few minute media accretions isolated elsewhere. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultraviolet light.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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"My body of work has mostly dealt with an examination of antecedents in the history of art, in other words "art about art".  I draw inspiration from popular media, advertising, comic books, art, billboards etc., and particularly the tradition of using beautiful women as subjects for my work in conjunction with commercial products. This incongruous relationship was a tenet of Surrealism which had a big influence on me when I was a teenager." Mel Ramos

Throughout his entire career, Mel Ramos carved out a unique position in which he was able to fuse art history, humour, eroticism and popular culture with a surreal Pop sensibility. In the early 60’s, Ramos was, like fellow pop artists Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, engulfed by product advertising, comic books, commerce and sex: the great American Dream was in full swing. 

For centuries, the female nude had been a heavily explored topic for visual artists, but in the 50s and 60s it became overtly part of popular culture. In a highly masculine society, magazines like Playboy played a big role in the commercialization of the female nude by overloading its magazines with sexually suggestive pictures of pin-up girls. It is perhaps no coincidence that Mel Ramos chose to infuse the majority of his paintings with these cultural phenomena.

Having lived in California, Mel Ramos inherently differs from his Pop counter parts on the east coast. At Sacramento State College he became lifelong friends with his teacher Wayne Thiebaud, who taught him  traditional painting and with whom he travelled to art exhibitions at  home and in New York City. It is this relationship and the connection with other San Francisco based artists like Richard Diebenkorn that contribute to his works’ distinctive west coast look. The use of brushmarks and sun soaked colors and his ability to hand paint his images with such technical perfection contrasts with the mechanized techniques his peers in New York were working with at the same time. Thematically, ‘Ramos was proposing something even more offensive, if possible, than Popeye and Coca-Cola’ recalls Robert Rosenblum (Robert Rosenblum, How  Venus came to California, p. 6-7 in Mel Ramos: Pop Art images, Taschen 1994).

Exhibited in his first ever solo exhibition at Bianchini gallery in New York, Miss American Legion plays on a mid-century occurrence when the pin-up girl and America’s involvement in global warfare became visually interlaced. The American army started utilizing these pictures in their war propaganda to motivate and inspire the young patriotic soldiers. They were printed on posters and on warplanes as a reminder of what was waiting for them when they would eventually go back home. Miss American Legion is a very cynical play on this propaganda technique as Ramos juxtaposes a luscious blonde model and the emblem of the American Legion, an organization founded by Lt. Col. Rooseveldt, Jr. to protect and support American war veterans who were neglected upon their return home. Whereas Mel Ramos was not a political painter you cannot help to think that here he is flirting with gender and war politics.

In the words of famed art critic Robert Rosenblum, ‘Here as elsewhere, Ramos emerges as an artist who has carved out an indispensable niche for himself, facing backwards and forwards to old masters and young Turks, and outwards to the real world of Playboy, California lifestyle and the pros and cons of political correctness.’ (Robert Rosenblum, How Venus came to California, p. 17 in Mel Ramos: Pop Art images, Taschen 1994)