Marisol Escobar (later known as Marisol) was born in Paris to Venezuelan parents and spent her youth between Caracas, New York, and Los Angeles. She attended the Académie Julian and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris before settling in New York in 1950, studying with Hans Hofmann and developing her interest in sculpture. Her early work is strongly influenced by Abstract Expressionist painting and the Pre-Columbian art she discovered on exhibition in New York and on travels to Mexico.
Read MoreMarisol became famous, not only for her groundbreaking and satirical works, but also for the place she occupied in various avantgarde social worlds in New York, among them Andy Warhol's circle. Warhol included her in several of his films. In 1968, she represented Venezuela at the Venice Biennale and was one of only four women among the 149 artists selected for that year's Documenta exhibition in Kassel, Germany.
Text courtesy Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
