Mel Ramos

50 Years of Pop Art

The Californian painter Mel Ramos is one of the most important representatives of the Pop Art movement. Along with other Pop artists, such as Andy Warhol or Roy Lichtenstein, he has been concentrating on many aspects of popular culture, the mass media and the advertising world. Starting off with comic heroes, Ramos devotes himself after this early period to the female nude, which has remained his main topic. In many famous artworks he provocatively lets sexy pinup girls nestle up against larger-than-life everyday consumer goods. This can be seen as a comment on the American way of business: “sex sells”. In other work series, he refers to significant works of the old masters, tributes to the nude in art history, and also devotes himself to the Californian landscape and popular culture.

This first European retrospective is organized on the occasion of Mel Ramos‘ 75th birthday in 2010 and brings together over 80 exhibits from 50 years of his creative work.

We would like to thank Strellson for its sponsorship.
Exhibition objects: 50 oil paintings, 30 drawings and watercolors as well as 4 sculptures
Exhibition space: variable from 500 – 700 sqm
Exhibition catalog: in 2 languages (German, English) in cooperation with Hatje Cantz

Exhibition venues 2010-2012:
Kunsthalle Tübingen, Germany, 23.01.-25.04.2010
Museum Villa Stuck, Germany, 24.06.-03.10.2010
Albertina, Vienna, Austria, 04.02.-29.05.2011
World Cultural Heritage Völklinger Hütte, Germany, 18.06.- 08.01.12

Visitors: 251 800

© Mel Ramos

Mel Ramos, Hav-a-Havana #3, The Lost Painting of 1965 #12, 2000
© Mel Ramos

Mel Ramos, Blue Coat, 1966
© Mel Ramos

Mel Ramos, The Flash #2, 1962
© Mel Ramos

Mel Ramos, Unfinished Painting #1, 1991
© Mel Ramos

Installation view Kunsthalle Tübingen
© Institut für Kulturaustausch

News

View all

Japanese Photography of the 1960s

Japan in times of rapid social change

The Museum Bad Arolsen presents the fascinating photo exhibition Between Meditation and Urban Bustle – Japanese Photography of the 1960s from September 9, 2023, to November 19, 2023. This unique exhibition by the Institute for Cultural Exchange showcases the works of twelve significant representatives of Japanese photography during this era. Immerse yourself in the Residenzschloss Arolsen and explore the visual narratives that are shaped by a time when Japan experienced rapid economic growth while undergoing societal transformations. From photojournalism and spontaneous situational portraits to symbolic staging, graphic abstraction, and poetic visual stories.

Read More

La Bohème

Toulouse-Lautrec and the Masters of Montmartre

La Bohème. Toulouse-Lautrec and the Master of poster art the successful exhibition of the Institute for Cultural Exchange is moving to its next venue: From June 26, 2023, to October 15, 2023, Toulouse-Lautrec’s extensive lithographic poster work from the collection of Muséé d’Ixelles is on view at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Quimper, France. Toulouse-Lautrec, like no one else, was able to capture the atmosphere of the Parisian nightlife through reduced, but expressive forms as well as intense coloring.  Accompanied by works of Lautrec’s predecessors and contemporaries, like Alfons Mucha, Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen or Félix Vallotton, the exhibition gives a profound insight into the fascinating world of the art poster around 1900.

Read More

Reshaped Reality

50 Years of Hyperrealistic Sculpture

The Institute for Cultural Exchange proudly presents the exhibition Sembra Vivo! Sculture iper-realiste dei più grandi artisti contemporanei at Palazzo Bonaparte in Rome, Italy. A comprehensive selection of sculptures by international representatives of the Hyperrealistic movement gives a profound insight into the development of this movement since the 1970s. The exhibition will be on display from May 26, 2023 to October 8, 2023. Previous presentations of the exhibition, for example in Spain, the Netherlands, and Denmark, broke all visitor records.

Read More

Supernatural

Sculptural Visions of the Body

The exhibition project SUPERNATURAL: Sculptural Visions of the Body is designed in collaboration with the Kunsthalle Tübingen and will be presented from February 18, 2023, until June 4, 2023 at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum in Taiwan. The group show brings together international artists like Isa Genzken, Sam Jinks or Anna Uddenberg who reflect on future body images in the face of genetic engineering and digital transformation. Approximately 30 exhibits push the boundaries of sculpture in the age of the Anthropocene and enable new design possibilities by allowing them to step into the realm of imagination – as supernatural hybrid beings.

Read More