Marisol Escobar

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Marisol Escobar (1963)

Maria Sol "Marisol" Escobar (as an artist also just Marisol ) (born May 22, 1930 in Paris ; † April 30, 2016 in New York City , New York ) was an American sculptor , painter and object artist of Venezuelan origin.

Life

Maria Sol Escobar came from a wealthy Venezuelan family. She was the daughter of Gustavo Escobar and Josefina Hernandez and had a brother, Gustavo. The mother, a patron of the arts in Venezuela, died in 1941. During the Second World War , the children led a nomadic life with the father with alternating stays in Paris, Los Angeles and Caracas . The father supported the children and enabled them to have a solid education. Marisol studied in 1949 at the Académie Julian and at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1950 she moved to New York, where she studied from 1951 to 1954 at the New School for Social Research , the Art Students League and with Hans Hofmann at the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts .

Through Hofmann, she became known to the Beatniks in Greenwich Village and the painters of Abstract Expressionism , whose meeting point was the artist's pub Cedars Tavern . Marisol made friends with Willem de Kooning , among others . Already at this time she was concerned with pre-Columbian art and artefacts of the Indian cultures and initially gave up traditional painting in favor of sculpture. The first sculptures were soon created using mixed techniques from wood, plastic and other found objects. In 1958 Marisol had her first solo exhibition with Leo Castelli . 1959 followed a trip to Italy , during which she dealt mainly with the art of the Renaissance .

Back in New York, groups of figures made of wood were created from 1960. In 1961 she took part in the extensive exhibition The Art of Assemblage at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). During the 1960s she was mainly known in the field of emerging Pop Art and exhibited together with artists such as Robert Indiana , Claes Oldenburg , James Rosenquist and Andy Warhol . She had a brief kiss scene with Robert Indiana in the Andy Warhol film Kiss in 1963 . Warhol had met her at Eleanor Ward's Stable Gallery , who also represented Indiana. In 1964, Marisol appeared in a screen test for the Warhol film 13 Most Beautiful Women , which helped the exotic-looking beauty - which now appeared under the name "Marisol" - to achieve rapid popularity and presence in society columns. However, the rather shy artist was not so much interested in the party going on and the superstar cult around Warhol's Factory and other pop protagonists and increasingly withdrew from the New York art scene. In the late 1960s she had numerous solo exhibitions in Europe. In 1968 she participated in the fourth Documenta in Kassel and at the Biennale in Venice in part. During this time she was politically active against the Vietnam War .

The Father Damien Statue (1969) in front of the Hawaii State Capitol

In 1968/69 she was selected from 66 participating artists as part of a tender by the Hawai'i State Statuary Hall Commission to design the statue of Father and missionary Damian de Veuster , which finally took place on April 15, 1969, Father Damien Day , in front of the Hawaii State Capitol was unveiled. In the early 1970s the artist got into a crisis of meaning and creativity and distanced herself from the art market for a few years; Numerous trips around the world followed, on which she preferred to devote herself to diving . She did not return to New York until 1981. Since 1978 she was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters .

Marisol Escobar moved in different styles of art; Her works range stylistically from abstract expressionism to hard edge to pop art, with which she is most likely to be associated. Marisol's sculptural works are strongly influenced by pre-Columbian art, by primitivism and by Latin American Indian and folk art and cite religious and cultural-historical subjects in a sometimes peculiarly satirical way, such as the installation Self-Portrait Looking at The Last Supper (1982-84), which The Last Supper satirized by Leonardo da Vinci as a cubist group of figures. Other figurative works, such as Women Leaning (1965–66), mostly consist of wooden blocks in which individual elements such as facial features or hands are worked out and painted in detail. In addition to large-scale sculptural works, the artist also worked with assemblage techniques, screen printing and lithographs .

Marisol last lived and worked in Tribeca , New York.

Works (selection)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fallció en Nueva York la escultora venezolana Marisol Escobar
  2. ↑ 'Queen of Pop Art' Marisol Escobar Dies at 86

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Escobar, Marisol
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Escobar, Maria Sol (maiden name); Marisol
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American sculptor of Venezuelan origin
DATE OF BIRTH May 22, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH April 30, 2016
Place of death New York City , New York