Detail

A painter of almost entirely abstract pictures in the late 1950s, west-coast based American artist Mel Ramos turned to painting comic-strip heroes in 1961. The comics he used were the same he had admired as a child when there had been widespread agreement that comics were junk. "Batmobile" belongs in this context: Batman and Robin have just got out of their Batmobile; hungry for action, they are rushing towards the onlooker. Ramos' predilection for pastose paint application and characteristic brushstrokes can be explained as part of the legacy of abstract expressionism. His backgrounds are usually monochrome and structured by rough brushstrokes in order to highlight the canvas's flatness, its two-dimensionality.