Tattoos and Body Art

Mel Ramos Sets Himself Apart from Pin-up Art Legends   by Hector Cantu

Many art historians consider Mel Ramos a part of the pop art movement, grouping him with Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Tom Wesselmann, and James Rosenquist.

His nudes first caught the public eye in the 1960s when pin-ups were a popular part of American culture. In recent years, original pin-up art by artists such as Gil Elvgren, Earl Moran and Enoch Bolles have attracted attention from collectors, and auction prices for their images of scantily clad women have shot up.

But Ramos doesn’t consider himself a pin-up artist. “No,” he says from his California studio. “I’m not part of that group.”

Ramos, 74, says his inspiration was another art form. “I was attracted to comics back then, because of the eroticism before the Comics Code was imposed,” Ramos says. “After that, comic books got kind of boring. The drawings in those early comics books of Sheena and all those sexy comic queens, that’s what attracted me. Originally, I was just doing comic book images the way they appeared and then I decided I wanted to make them look more realistic, so I started adding the faces of celebrities, which I still do.”

Superman, Wonder Woman and the Green Lantern all got the Ramos treatment. His Sheena, Queen of the Jungle — like many of his images — features vivid colors within sharp contour lines, with the subject’s name spelled out in big letters. A private collector recently consigned Ramos’ classic Sheena painting to Dallas-based Heritage Auctions.

The New York Times has pointed out that modeling comic-book bodies on those of real women — movie stars like Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe — was Ramos’ innovation. “So despite their nonrealistic comic style,” the Times said, “Mr. Ramos’ women had an erotic presence that comic-book women of the day never had.”

His later works combined nudes with well-known brands, including images of women, for instance, inside a Baby Ruth candy wrapper or kicking back on a giant roll of Lifesavers. He’s also known for his “peek-a-boo” paintings, where women are visible through keyholes. Ramos says he’s working on such a painting for actress Pamela Anderson.

Although he owns an original Elvgren painting, Ramos says he’s never been particularly inspired by the work of America’s great pin-up artists. “The [Spanish painters], Joaquin Sorolla, Diego Velasques, those were the main influences when I was younger,” he says. “I aspire to those kind of heights.”

As for contemporary artists, Ramos is more likely to identify with his colleagues and friends Tom Wesselmann and Allen Jones. “Most of my career, I have received the brunt of criticism from nudity in my work. It’s controversial. I’ve been the target of feminists over the years. Not so much anymore. But Tom and Allen, we’ve suffered the same abuse because of the erotic implications of the work.

“When Picasso or Matisse did a painting of an undraped model, a nude model, they were called nudes,” Ramos continues. “When I do it, they’re called pin-ups. Somebody has a pre-occupation with this. I certainly don’t. I consider myself a painter.”

About the Author

Hector Cantu is editorial director at Heritage Magazine (www.HeritageMagazine.com), where this story originally appeared. For a free subscription, visit http://www.HeritageMagazine.com.
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