Batmobile

1962

1/2© mumok

2/2© mumok

Object description	Oil on canvas
Object category	painting
Material	Object: oil paint, canvas
Technique	Object: oil paintings
Dimensions	Objekt: height: 127 cm, width: 111 cm Rahmen: height: 130,5 cm, width: 115,5 cm, depth: 5 cm
Year of acquisition	1991
Inventory number	ÖL-Stg 261/0
Creditline	mumok - Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Leihgabe der Österreichischen Ludwig-Stiftung
Rights reference	Bildrecht, Wien
Further information about the person	Ramos, Mel [GND]
Literature	Hyper Real Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien Pop les années pop 1956-1968 annees Pop : 1956 - 1968 ; exposition presentee au Centre Pompidou, Galerie 1, 15 mars - 18 juin 2001

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.