In 1963 Mel Ramos, one of the first artists to embrace Pop Art, developed a preference for a tantalizing, seductive visual language. In typical Pop Art colors, beauty queens and nude Hollywood stars are combined with commodities to populate his paintings. In accordance with advertising aesthetics, he placed female bodies in erotic, occasionally vulgar poses on top of consumer goods, thus taking his theme from advertising’s enduring slogan, “sex sells.”
Biography 1935 born in Sacramento, CA 1953–1958 studied fine arts at Sacramento State College, B.A. 1957, M.A. 1958 1965–1966 Sacramento State University 1966 Arizona State University, Tempe 1966 California State University, Hayward lives and works in Oakland, CA, and Horta de Sant Joan, Spain 2018 deceases on October 14, in Oakland, CA, USA
