The Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) in Ohio, the United States is currently exhibiting Marisol: A Retrospective, an exhibition exploring the life and work of Maria Sol Escobar (1930-2016), widely known as “Marisol.” The Venezuelan artist pursued a sculpture practice that saw her rise to great acclaim in the Pop art movement in the 1960s New York before falling into relative obscurity, only to step into the limelight once more in the 21^st century. The exhibition was organised by Buffalo AKG Art Museum’s Charles Balbach, Chief Curator Cathleen Chaffee and its TMA presentation has been curated by Jessica S. Hong, Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Toledo Museum of Art. Hong joins STIR for an interview that explores the role scale played within Marisol’s sculptural practice and places her work within her wider art movement.

Born to wealthy Venezuelan parents in Paris, Marisol travelled Europe and the United States extensively as a child and was inspired by her visits to various museums. Her fascination with drawing and embroidery led her to pursue an arts education, though she began creating mixed-media sculptures with no formal training in the medium, after having been inspired by pre-Columbian sculpture art and American folk art. Her sculptures incorporated found objects and focused on portraying social archetypes in a materialistic society, along with public figures—some of whom like Andy Warhol—were her close friends in the New York art scene.

Marisol’s works are often nearly life-sized or larger, going over six feet in height and forcing the viewer to approach them as equals. Hong discusses the artist’s decision to work on a large scale, telling STIR, "Given that Marisol was deeply interested and invested in social relations, her nearly life-size (in some instances, such as Baby Girl and Baby Boy, monumental) mixed media sculptural works allow those that encounter and experience her work to explore the rich and complex relationships we have with each other." The sheer scale of these works, combined with their rough formal aspects would have bestowed a totemic quality on them, rendering them emblematic of social or relational roles such as parents or children.

Marisol’s works portraying social archetypes seem to sit in contrast to her approach to portraiture, presenting the likeness of public figures in her own reduced style. While many of these works were of artists she admired, others were of political figures, which some have theorised were purposefully rendered in an unflattering light. Her commissioned sculpture of George W Bush comes to mind and the work was never displayed by those who invited Marisol to create it...Perhaps that was the point: her fellow artists would find humour in her portrayal of them, while politicians would feel a certain sting.

Marisol herself did not think Pop art was an appropriate umbrella for her work, likely because she was well aware that her works, despite carrying a lot of colour, almost always felt a little drab. This is in sharp contrast to the sense of vibrancy many associate with the movement, with the artist’s works speaking to a deep-rooted sense of depression at the heart of consumer culture. However, art discourse has declared Marisol a Pop artist; a probable byproduct of creating art in 1960s New York and associating with prominent artists within that movement. Hong links her to Pop art but separates her visual language from her contemporaries. She tells STIR, “Marisol used a range of strategies in her sculptural works, particularly drawing, casting and found elements. She was very intentional in her use of these components. Along with cutouts from mass media publications, in which Pop artists found inspiration, she forged her own visual vernacular.”

This overdue retrospective expands our understanding of Marisol’s work, practice and life. – Jessica S. Hong, Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Toledo Museum of Art

The fame of the sculpture artist waned after the 60s. Commentators such as feminist artist Judy Chicago have noted the subordinate position of women artists in the movement, and even a cursory exploration of reportage on Marisol will reveal no shortage of articles discussing her in the same breath as Warhol; it is an obvious association that needn’t be continuously reinforced.

The growth of feminist discourse in the arts saw interest in Marisol’s work rekindled towards the end of the 90s and in the early 2000s, eventually leading to Memphis Brooks Museum of Art’s 2014 travelling exhibition Marisol: Sculptures and Works on Paper. Marisol: A Retrospective continues the important work of presenting her art to new audiences. Hong is optimistic that the exhibition at the art museum will leave an impression on today’s creatives and ends her interview with STIR, saying, “This overdue retrospective expands our understanding of Marisol’s work, practice and life. I have no doubt this exhibition that features Marisol’s fullness, will certainly have creative resonance and influence, including on artists and practitioners working today.”