Remembering Marisol Escobar

With the recent passing of Marisol Escobar (1930–2016) the National Portrait Gallery recognizes her life and significant contribution to American art and portraiture. Born in Paris as María Sol Escobar to Venezuelan parents, she was one of the foremost artists in postwar America. She studied art widely in Los Angeles, Paris, and New York, where she established herself in the 1950s studying art the Art Students League with Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and at the school of Hans Hoffman, the ground-breaking teacher of abstraction. Referencing her South American heritage, Marisol transitioned from painting to sculpture after seeing an exhibition of pre-Columbian art.

By the early 1960s, Marisol had become part of the New York contemporary art scene, breaking its male hierarchy and achieving critical success through her own brand of pop art, informed by folk art and surrealism and infused with wry humor and political commentary. Ingenious in her technical approach, she played with the boundaries of artistic media while bestowing great personality to her portraits. Boxy structures that, unadorned, might seem like simple caskets or boxes, define most of her portrait sculptures. Marisol individualized them with delicately drawn faces in charcoal, painting on elegant clothes or adding actual garments, as well as shoes, cast hands or limbs, and everyday objects such as eyeglasses. The National Portrait Gallery has several works by Marisol including her droll, toylike renderings of public figures like Lyndon Johnson, Bob Hope, and Hugh Hefner. 

This portrait sculpture of Marisol holding a piece of wood and a carving tool is part of Judith Shea’s series Legacy honoring women artists. It is currently on view on the museum’s third floor.