Marisol: A quiet artist’s big noise

Marisol, born Maria Sol Escobar, (1930-2016), was many things. She was intriguing, she was playful. She was a mystery, she was an “it” girl. She was devoted to her art, yet walked away from the spotlight when it burned too brightly. She was a pop culture icon for a few years and then an artist working in relative obscurity for decades. Through her art, she seemed to comment on the society around her, but did it in such a quiet way that you are left wondering if this is her messaging or your interpretation. Above all Marisol was an enigma which, of course, adds to her appeal. 

Silently finding her way

Marisol was born in Paris in 1930. Her parents were Venezuelan jet-setters who left Paris soon after Marisol’s birth and subsequently lived in Venezuela, New York and Los Angeles. When Marisol was 11 years old, her mother committed suicide and in response to this childhood trauma, Marisol stopped talking for years.  Even in adulthood, she only spoke when she believed it was necessary. 

After high school, Marisol spent a year studying art in Paris. Around 1950, at her father’s beckoning, Marisol moved to NYC. She wryly states that this was because he felt that she would be safer there as a female artist living by herself then she would have been in Paris. She found this amusing due to the fact that once in NYC, she was drawn into the counter-culture 1960s art scene. She studied under Hans Hoffman and at the Arts Students League and was greatly influenced by Abstract Expressionists such as Willelm de Kooning, Jackson Pollack and pop artist Andy Warhol. 

Marisol came upon the NYC art scene right at the time that Abstract Expressionism overlapped with the birth of Pop Art. As her art became more renowned it was often categorized as Pop Art, but it seemed more layered and subtle than the art of artists such as Warhol or Roy Lichtenstien. Marisol walked the line between the inward introspection of Abstract Expressionism and the extroversion and exuberance of Pop Art.

Don’t take her too seriously

Marisol would be the first to say that the viewer shouldn’t take her too seriously.  Of her jump from painting to her box-like wooden sculptures she said, “It started as a kind of rebellion,” she said. “Everything was so serious … and the people I met were so depressing. I started doing something funny so that I would be happier — and it worked.”

Not only did it work to elevate her mood, but others noticed her unusual combination of carved, drawn and cast forms and readymade elements. No one else was doing sculpture quite the way Marisol did.  In 1961 she was invited to participate in the Art of Assemblage exhibition at MOMA. 

After the MOMA exhibit, Marisol’s popularity quickly grew.  By 1963, she became a crossover celebrity.  Many magazines such as Time, Life and Glamour featured her. Art lovers and pop culture followers alike were intrigued by her good looks, glamorous lifestyle and association with the Pop Art party scene. By 1966, it was not uncommon for thousands of people to wait in line to see her life-size figures. 

But she really doesn’t care what you think

In 1964, at the height of her celebrity, Marisol was asked how she would like her work to be seen by critics and the public. Quite puzzled by the question, she replied, “I don’t care what they think.” Yet, Marisol’s art was unusually thought-provoking. Pre-Columbian looking, boxy, static figures with expressive drawn features or masks that were often of Marisol’s own face combined with found objects somehow translated into social commentary. She portrayed politicians and artists, social climbers and the unassuming, the wealthy and the marginalized. 

Despite the fact that she often used her own face in her art, her art typically reflected her observations of others, especially women, rather than inward contemplation. However, in 1968  she created a sculpture she entitled Mi Mama y yo, (My mother and I), in which a child figure is clearly protective of the mother figure. After creating this work of art, at the height of her fame, she abruptly disappeared from the art scene and traveled the world, embracing underwater photography and scuba diving.  

The productivity of obscurity

By the 70s, the general public had all but forgotten her, allowing her to once again quietly retreat into her art for the next several decades. After her travels she focused on creating a series of cast sculptures of fish. She eventually circled back to her sculptures of well-known people by paying tribute to artists she admired. She sculpted several of them in their old age including Georgia O’Keefe, Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol. 

In the 1980s and 90s her work focused more on social injustices, religion and monuments of public figures. In this period she created a series focused on famous Native Americans and a work entitled “Self Portrait Looking at the Last Supper.” Her American Merchant Mariner’s Memorial in NYC’s Battery Park was commissioned at this time as well. 

Marisol died of Alzeimer’s disease in 2016.  She had created over 100 sculptures, 150 works on paper and thousands of photographs. Marisol bequeathed much of her work upon her death to the Buffalo AKG Art Museum. They have since organized an exhibition of over 250 of Marisol’s works. Currently at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts,  Marisol: A Retrospective will be hosted by TMA March 2-June 2, 2024 before it travels to the Dallas Museum of Art and then to the Buffalo AKG Art Museum. Marisol is having a moment once again as this exhibition tours North America, reigniting wide interest in her engaging body of work.