Mel Ramos was an American Pop artist whose paintings spliced together pin-up figures and commercial branding to probe the seductions of post-war consumer culture. Emerging alongside West Coast Pop, he rendered glossy bodies entwined with chocolate bars, soda bottles and fruit, crafting images that were at once playful, ironic and knowingly provocative.
Across six decades he explored the boundaries between fine art and advertising, teasing out questions of taste, desire and authorship. While critics debated the politics of his imagery, Ramos consistently framed his work as a celebration—and critique—of the fantasies that saturate popular media.