Marisol
1930–2016
Born Maria Sol Escobar in Paris to Venezuelan parents, the artist Marisol moved to Los Angeles at age fifteen and studied for a time with the painter Hans Hofmann in New York. Rebelling against the dominance of Abstract Expressionist painting in the mid-1950s, she turned to sculpture, forging a distinctive approach that combined elements of Surrealism, Pop art, assemblage, and even folk art in her arrangements of large- scale figures. Marisol frequently used her own image—drawn, painted, sculpted, photographed, and carved—for both the male and female figures of her tableaux, which have depicted everything from monstrous, oversized children to John Wayne on horseback, a dinner date, women at a cocktail party, a wedding, and The Last Supper.
Each of the four life-sized blocky female figures in the sculptural assemblage Women and Dog is a self-portrait of the artist, carved from wood and painted. One of the figures incorporates a black- and-white photograph of Marisol; the multiple faces on two of the others were cast in plaster directly from the artist herself; while the small figure is a representation of Marisol as a child. Each sports a fashionable outfit of the period, accessorized with found objects that include a real purse and hair bow. Although the work explores variations on the generic midcentury American woman, Marisol, commenting on the piece in 1964, claimed to have been “inspired by the dog.” Indeed, the stuffed dog head—which the artist purchased from a taxidermist—is a central element of the piece; the animal, tethered by a leash, becomes another kind of accessory to these well-heeled ladies.
Introduction
An artist known primarily for her figurative assemblage works of the 1960s that drew on both folk art and Pop. She was born in Paris to Venezuelan parents and grew up in Paris and Caracas, settling in Los Angeles in 1946. She went on to study at the École des Beaux-Arts, and the Académie Julian. She returned to the US to live in New York City, where in the early 1950s she developed her signature sculptural works.
Country of birth
France
Roles
Artist, painter, sculptor
ULAN identifier
500027334
Names
Marisol, Maria Sol Escobar, Marisol Escobar, María Sol Escobar, Marisol (Marisol Escobar), Escobar Marisol
Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed November 23, 2025.
