Mel Ramos - First Kiss

From 1963 onwards, Mel Ramos (1935-2018), one of the first Pop Art artists, developed his focus on provocative and seductive imagery. Echoing the aesthetic of magazines and advertisements, he positioned female bodies atop consumer goods in various erotic - at times almost vulgar - poses. By referencing and showcasing them in this way, Ramos exposed the marketing strategies employed in the advertising industry. This new catalogue presents around 70 works on paper dating from every phase and series of his oeuvre and conveys the artist’s graphic conquest of the picture surface, as well as his meticulous composition. The preliminary sketches are shown alongside the final large-scale oil paintings with their typical Pop Art colour palette.

Text in English and German.