Marisol and Warhol: An Influential Friendship
Featured in the 2021 Marisol and Warhol Take New York exhibition catalogue
Essay Excerpt:
But you have this mystique that people talk about—this mystique of silence. People say: Marisol never talks. —Cindy Nemser
Well, I think that’s a way to wipe me out. They used to say I am mysterious and like a madonna, and that I don’t say anything. I was thinking about it the other day. It is a way to wipe you out, isn’t it? —Marisol
“Marisol’s relationship to the history of New York Pop is complicated. Records show that she was central to the movement, influencing the scene and making completely original work, yet her name was essentially written out of the historical narrative. This erasure is partly because she snubbed the art world’s rules, and partly because this history is dominated by white men. Marisol fled success at two critical moments in her career, in 1957 and again in 1968, and resisted categorization within a specific art movement. She declined to name a particular country as her home and dropped her last name to eliminate a connection to her past. As a female artist, she defied the confines of gender roles: she never married or had children, she was comfortable and open with her sexuality, and she never apologized for her fame. Despite her absence in the art historical record, we know from media accounts that she was one of the most successful artists selling work in the early 1960s. Andy Warhol, the artist most connected with the Pop movement, took note of her originality and rising success.”
About the Catalogue:
This book charts the emergence of Marisol Escobar (1930–2016) and Andy Warhol (1928–87) in New York during the dawn of Pop art in the early 1960s. Through essays, interviews, and prose, the book explores the artists’ parallel rise to success, the formation of their artistic personas, their savvy navigation of gallery relationships, and the blossoming of their early artistic practices from 1960 to 1968. The exhibition features key loans of Marisol’s work from major global collections, along with iconic works and rarely seen films and archival materials from The Andy Warhol Museum’s collection. By situating Marisol's work in dialogue with Warhol’s, this new collection of writing seeks to reclaim the importance of her art; reframe the strength, originality, and daring nature of her work; and reconsider her as one of the leading figures of the Pop era.
Edited by Jessica Beck
Texts by Angie Cruz, Jessica Beck, Jeffrey Deitch, Eleanor Friedberger, Jennifer Josten, Franklin Sirmans
Publisher: Andy Warhol Museum
ISBN: 9781735940212
Hardcover
120pp., 7.75 x 10.5 in, 60 color illus.
Published: December 21, 2021