This is a three dimensional multiple. Ramos is famous for his parody of sex and advertising of which this is an excellent example. “I got interested using the brand names...The object also has to be an icon, something you don’t even think about. When you see a Coca-Cola sign you don’t even read it anymore, you just know what it says in your mind.”
Integral to Pop Art of the 1960’s, Mel Ramos’ work epitomises the lavish abundance of California in his series of female pop pin-ups staged together with consumer products. In repurposing visuals from mass media he has made the separation between fine art and ordinary culture ambiguous, developing a unique blend of artificiality and superreal precision, natural and synthetic colouring, depth and fatness. The Pause that Refreshes features a provocative female figure against a Coca-Cola sign backdrop. The figure, like a hybrid creature, osculates between a movie star and the girl next door, thus embodying the common theme of popular projections. Much like Andy Warhol, Ramos’ heroines become icons in the practical world, perceived through the power of media.