Mel Ramos - Wired: Online Auction London Thursday, November 23, 2023 | Phillips
  • “The whole point of my art, is that art grows out of art. That is central, no matter whether it is high art, low art, popular or what. Comic books, girlie magazines, magazine ads, billboards are all art to me.”
    —Mel Ramos

     

    Resting in a martini glass, looking over her shoulder with her legs split in a burlesque pose inspired by Dita Von Teese, the sculpture Dita epitomises Mel Ramos’ focus on the exploration of the female nude in painted and sculpted form. Defying hierarchies between ‘high’ and ‘low’ art, the Californian artist took inspiration from mass media and advertising, similarly to Pop artists Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. Drawing on a motif with a long tradition in Western art history, Ramos thus transformed the nude into a celebration of the female form as well as contemporary culture.

    • Provenance

      Private Collection

    • Exhibited

      San Francisco, Modernism Inc, Mel Ramos: Sirens & Heroes, 2 November 2017-13 January 2018 (another example exhibited)
      Zürich, Galerie Gmurzynska, The suspense is terrible, I hope it will last: Mel Ramos, 30 March-26 May 2023 (another example exhibited)

    • Artist Biography

      Mel Ramos

      American • 1935

      Mel Ramos is an American Pop artist best known for his paintings of female nudes alongside brand logos. His depictions of women with everyday products celebrate aspects of popular culture represented in mass media and advertising. Like his contemporaries Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, Ramos was inspired by comic books and grew up drawing cartoons and characters from their pages. The artist's works, including paintings, prints and works on paper, feature in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, among others.

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17

Dita

incised with the artist's signature and numbered '50/60 Mel Ramos' to the underside
polished stainless steel
57.8 x 27.5 x 30.9 cm (22 3/4 x 10 7/8 x 12 1/8 in.)
Executed in 2017, this work is number 50 from an edition of 60 plus 6 artist's proofs, and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
£10,000 - 15,000 

Contact Specialist

Louise Simpson
Associate Specialist, Head of Online Sale
+44 7887 473 568
lsimpson@phillips.com

Wired: Online Auction

23 - 30 November 2023