NEW YORK, NY.- Mel Ramos, the West Coast Pop artist known for his portraits of female nudes that are incongruously paired with brand logos, died on Sunday in Oakland, California. He was 83.

His death, on Sunday, Oct. 14, at Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center, was confirmed by his daughter and studio manager, Rochelle Leininger. The cause was heart failure.

Among the great painters of the American Pop Art movement, Mel Ramos was the most provocative. Throughout the course of his sixty-year career, Ramos experimented with different series that depicted the female form, each that was imbued with ironic undertones.Evolving from his early Pop portraits of comic book heroines in the 1960s, Ramos’ later series humorously explored the idealization and depiction of the nude female form in art, fashion and advertising.

Rising to acclaim in 1963 after his inclusion in the Lawrence Alloway’s groundbreaking exhibitions “Six Painters and the Object” and “Six More” presented at LACMA, Ramos’ comic book heroes were hung alongside emerging New York contemporary artists, including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jasper Johns, as well as the work of his mentor, Wayne Thiebaud. This was the break-out moment of his career, which solidified his role within the American Pop movement.

Although he did not achieve the same level of notoriety as his peers, Ramos’ work is still highly celebrated, particularly in Europe. In recent years, several retrospectives have been held in his honor, which have included “Mel Ramos: 50 years of Superheroes, Nudes, and Other Pop Delights” at the Crocker Museum of Art in Sacramento in 2012 and “Mel Ramos: 50 Years of Pop Art” at the Albertina in Vienna, Austria in 2011. His work is also held in numerous permanent collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art; and the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC, amongst others.

Mel Ramos was born in 1935 in Sacramento, California. He received his B.A. and his M.A. from Sacramento State College, where he finished in 1958. He joined the faculty of California State University, East Bay, in 1966. In 1997, he retired and took on a role as an emeritus professor.

Ramos lived and maintained a studio for many years in the Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland, spending part of each year at his home in Spain.

In addition to his daughter, who lives in Danville, he is survived by his wife, the former Leta Helmers, and his son Skot, of Burbank.

Louis K. Meisel Gallery has represented Mel Ramos for fifty years. The exhibition “Mel Ramos: Superheroes of 1963”, which is currently on view, will now be considered a memorial exhibition to the artist.