Three Women with Umbrella – 1966 –

Three white women elegantly dressed up juxtaposed with a terrified young Vietnamese child holding a teddy bear. The working title for this was simply ‘Vietnam’. It is this type of sly commentary about social and political issues that made Marisol so unique.

Graphite and paint on wood with plexiglas, found plastic umbrella and stuffed bird

Doll – various fabrics – 1955-63

Marisol was sometimes trivialized by the press as making toy-like art and dolls. She did make many dolls, often as part of larger sculptures but also as stand alone pieces. Her inspiration stemmed from an older artist in Venezuela, Armando Reverón, who did the same thing.

Baby Boy – 1962-1963 – Painted wood and mixed media

Another covert commentary in guise of a something benign. The baby boy is monstrously big and is seemingly manhandling the doll (with a photo of Marisol’s face). The clothing is a partial white star, a blue sleeve and red stripes. At the time someone paying attention would have understood the messaging that the US is a big toddler bully, only partially aware of the damage it is causing.

Self Portrait – close up

Ruth – 1962 – carved wood and mixed media

This is a portrait of Marisol’s good friend Ruth Kligman, a big personality in New York art world of the 50s and 60s who had an affair with Jackson Pollack and was injured in the car wreck that killed him in 1956.

There are multiple portraits in the round with cast hands (Marisol’s) and cast bell peppers as breasts.

Tea for Three – 1960 – Wood, acrylic, found objects

This sculpture shows one of the first times Marisol used her own body. The casts of mouth, nose and hands are hers.

The colors represent the Venezuelan flag, her heritage.

Marisol was a well-known celebrity in the mid 60s, often found in the pages of fashion magazines alongside her creations as well as at well documented parties among the cognoscenti of the time.. This ambitious piece recreates that world from the most to the least celebrated. Each figure is endowed with the artist’s own face, thus making a statement not just about society but about herself.

Diptych – 1971 – Lithograph

Marisol also experimented extensively with printmaking. In this instance she was inspired by the Japanese technique of Gyotaku printing, pressing a fish against paper to document prize catches. Instead of fish she used her own oiled and nude body pressed on to two lithography stones that she then worked and printed.

You can see in the close up the cartoon heart pierced by and arrow and the wound in her side surrounded by teeth.

This using of a technique that is used to celebrate catches of meat on her own body instead is a courageous statement of the objectifying sexism of her day.

Marisol never shied away from speaking her mind about the abstract violence of war and the very real violence against women and others right around her in New York and beyond.

Here she uses a friend’s body that has been laid out on paper that she then outlines with randomly chosen colored pencils. Combining the blood tinged body outline with dark guns, anonymous sexually grabbing hands and a realistic rendering of the model’s infant child is a great example of the power of artistic creativity to send a profound message.

Horace Poolaw – 1993 – wood, paint, graphite, plaster and metal wheeled base

This was Marisol’s contribution to an exhibition celebrating the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s voyage to the new world.

She created a portrait of an indigenous person set on a police barricade cart that says ‘Police Line Do Not Cross’.

The Funeral – 1996 – Paint, crayon, and oil on wood

Marisol’s social commentary sometimes went into pathos and despair as can be seen in this sculpture of JFK Jr. saluting at his father’s funeral.

Picasso – 1977 – Painted Bronze