Wild Girl

1963

Mel Ramos

Artist, American, 1935 - 2018

A blond, buxom woman with peach-colored skin wears a leopard-print bathing suit against an abstracted, colorful garden setting in this vertical painting. The woman’s features and body are outlined in dark red and minimally shaded, giving it a cartoonish look. The woman’s body is angled to our right, and she looks off in that direction with hooded hazel eyes lined with blue shadow. She has a button nose, and her full, hot-pink lips are closed. A line at the side of her face suggests high cheekbones. Blond bangs create a wave across her forehead, and her hair falls to her shoulders. The bathing suit has narrow straps over the shoulders that swell to cover about half of her full breasts. The bands continue down her torso and meet the brief-like bottom. She holds a plan by its stem with one hand, and we can see one red-painted fingernail. Her other arm disappears on the far side of her body. Bright green leaves and a red, long-petaled flower blossom grow between us and her legs. Bands of mostly flat color behind her create the impression of grass in acid green, taller brush in midnight blue, distant trees in violet-purple behind her shoulders, and a higher level of canopies silhouetted in black against a scarlet-red sky.
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Abrams Family Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 100.97 x 89.85 cm (39 3/4 x 35 3/8 in.)
    framed: 102.87 × 92.39 × 4.45 cm (40 1/2 × 36 3/8 × 1 3/4 in.)

  • Accession

    2010.118.1


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(The Pace Gallery, New York); Abrams Family Collection, New York, by 1966; Robert E. Abrams, New York; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, New York, 14 May 2008, no. 117, bought in); Robert E. Abrams, New York; gift 2010 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1964

  • First International Girlie Exhibition, The Pace Gallery, New York, 1964.

1966

  • The Harry N. Abrams Family Collection, The Jewish Museum, New York, 1966, brochure, no. 115.

2004

  • Mel Ramos, Robert Sandelson Gallery, London, 2004-2005, no catalogue.

2007

  • Mel Ramos: Works from the 1960s, Robert Sandelson Gallery, London, 2007, no catalogue.

Bibliography

1975

  • Claridge, Elizabeth. Mel Ramos. London, 1975: repro. 54, 155 no. 44.

2004

  • Kuspit, Donald. Mel Ramos: Pop Art Fantasies, The Complete Paintings. New York, 2004: 63, 238, repro.

Inscriptions

upper left reverse: "WILD GIRL" 1963 / BY MEL RAMOS / 4608 WYMAN DR. / SACRAMENTO / CALIF

Wikidata ID

Q20195962


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