Pin Up Pop Art “Hav-a-Havana 10” (2015), limited edition color lithograph by Mel Ramos

About Mel Ramos (1935-2018), American Pop Art Artist: He was one of the great painters of American Pop Art. Born on July 24, 1935, in Sacramento, California, Mel Ramos became famous for his pin-up girls adorning well-known brand-name products. The Pop Art artist studied art at Sacramento College. In the early 1960s, Ramos began producing series of paintings whose motifs were borrowed from comic strips and which stood out due to their vibrant colors. From 1965 onward, he created the works that became his trademark: He combined nude beauties from American magazines with familiar consumer goods. From this, he developed his own iconography, characterized by the exaggerated nude figure standing out against the transformed background. "I make sure my paintings aren't too erotic, that they always have a touch of humor. You either understand what's meant or you don't." At times, his works were considered the epitome of bad taste, and the artist was accused of sexism. From 1966 to 1997, Mel Ramos taught as a professor of painting at California State University, Hayward. Today, Mel Ramos is considered alongside Warhol, Lichtenstein, and Wesselmann. His works have been presented in numerous exhibitions and can be found in the most important collections of modern art. His works are also part of well-known museums and collections in Germany. "That Mel Ramos has now risen like a phoenix from the ashes of aesthetic rejection and is highly sought after hardly needs mentioning," wrote the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in 2011. Ramos's works are collected worldwide. Mel Ramos died on October 14, 2018, in his hometown of Oakland, California.