She was one of the most celebrated and visionary figures of Pop Art, but disappeared almost overnight only to be written out of history. However, Venezuelan-American Marisol is experiencing a veritable comeback. Louisiana presents the first major exhibition in Europe of this forgotten, enigmatic and radical artist.
Marisol (1930-2016) stands as one of the most radical and visionary artists of her generation. She was born María Sol Escobar in Paris to a Venezuelan family, and died in New York, where she had lived and worked for large parts of her life since the 1950s.
Despite her enormous fame, especially in the United States, and although her work is imbued with an original, artistic vision, there has not yet been a comprehensive showing of Marisol in Europe. Louisiana is therefore proud to be able to present this exhibition.
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original tableaus
Marisol had her breakthrough on the international art scene in the early 1960s. During these years, she was close friends with Andy Warhol, who, especially at the start of his career, was both interested in and inspired by her achievements.
MIXING POP WITH FOLK ART
Marisol pursued a very personal and distinct path within Pop Art with her painted and carved wooden sculptures of almost human size figures. Often they were assembled with found objects in larger tableaus, where she mixes Pop Art with folk art, that she held in high esteem. One finds references both to early cultures in Central and South America, but also to the booming American consumerism of the 1960s and rise in the cult of celebrity. Her own self-portrait often serving as a focal point.
Reviews
Colourful and disturbing
Marisol’s universe is at once disturbing and colourful, dark and humorous and covers virtually every aspect of daily life. Her complex works are full of existential questions and political messages with strong attitudes towards fixed (gender) roles and equality.
FORGOTTEN AND REFOUND
In the 1960s, Marisol without question ranks as one of the most famous and celebrated artists of the decade – her works appear, among other things, several times on the cover of TIME Magazine. However, she chooses to turn her back on New York and take a break from the art world. Although she returns after a couple of years and continues to work in changing genres until her death, she never manages to “recapture” the spotlight.
Marisol is quickly forgotten and her role subsequently written out of the history of Pop Art. It is only now, with a series of recent exhibitions in the US – some of which juxtapose her work with Warhol’s – that she is literaly experiencing a comeback. Sparking a major interest and pronounced reappraisal of her influential role and unique body of work.
MARISOL AND WARHOL
It speaks volumes about Marisol's stardom at the time - as well as about her close relationship with Warhol - that the two were referred to as "The Queen and King of Pop". Although their backgrounds and paths into the art world were vastly different, they formed an immediate and warm bond when they first met at a dinner party hosted by artist Frank Stella in 1962.
That same year, Marisol created a figure of a seated, pensive Warhol, while he used her in some of his earliest and most experimental films (1963 and 1964). Respectively, their art revolved around the popular cultural phenomena of the time, celebrities and gender identity, and they both had the self-portrait as a focal point.
Andy Warhol admired Marisol’s art, style and manner – not least her enigmatic appearance in public and towards the press. It was a truly sincere compliment from his side when referring to Marisol as “The first girl artist with glamour”.
