Mel Ramos (1935-2018) - Tootsie Roll

Mel Ramos (1935–2018) is one of the best-known American Pop Art artists. He became famous for using well-known brand-name products and motifs from comics in his works. In doing so, he took on the consumer and advertising world and made it the subject of his art.
The lithograph “Tootsie Roll” from 2007 shows a well-known American confectionery product.
Typical for Ramos is a naked woman in the pin-up style on the roll. She is not intended as a single person, but as a symbol. Ramos thus engages with the visual language of advertising, in which attention is often generated by attractive bodies. At the same time, he plays with art history by combining the classical nude with a everyday product. In this way he makes visible how closely consumption, advertising and representations of the female body are intertwined.
In short: the naked woman is meant to provoke, to attract attention, and to show how advertising, consumption and depictions of the body are connected – not to present something romantic or erotic.
The work offered is no. 16 from a limited edition of 199 copies
The work is listed in the catalogue raisonné under: Hilger GL 2-07 (SLS)