Marisol Escobar (1930-2016) was born in Paris to a wealthy Venezuelan family. She spent her early years travelling freely around Europe, an idyllic childhood ruptured in her eleventh year by her mother’s suicide. From there, she embarked on a scant diet of reclusiveness and artmaking, which would sustain her for the rest of her life.

Marisol endured a rapid ascent to fame in the 1950s and 1960s, as her unique eye and associations with such star-making figures as Andy Warhol saw her life and works decorate the pages of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. For this short time, she was a NYC art world darling whose physical appeal – coquettish and forlorn – drew admirers in hordes. Warhol remarked that she was “the first girl artist with glamour”, and others called her the “Latin Garbo”. As such, her reception was marred by her own beauty and cosmopolitanism, which she often obfuscated with masks and periods of long retreat. Though she shied away from public intrigue with time, themes of celebrity and performance proved to be an indelible influence on her work. Her subjects ranged from politicians (The Kennedy Family (1960), The Right Honorable Harold Wilson (1967)) to other artists (Andy (1962–1963), Portrait of Duchamp (1981)), to herself. In Dinner Date (1963), two Marisol-esque figures sit perpendicular to one another with a taciturn reserve, forks erect and faces staring into empty space.

Though she is now regarded as intrinsic to the formation of Pop Art, at the dawn of Marisol’s career, the movement had not yet been defined. Instead, her early critics focused on the more “primitive” aspects of her sculptures, their precedents in Indigenous totem art and the consequent perceived immaturity of their design. In retrospect, Marisol is perhaps more appropriately framed as an early pop art innovator, a movement in which immaturity – or rather, a sense of flat superficiality and childlike playfulness – echoes the vibrancy of advertising. Her sculptures dissect and deny any claims to “essential” femininity, instead showing it to be a hollow artifice, like a cutout plastered onto a piece of wood. Where Warhol sought to fashion himself into the celebrities and models he subjectified, Marisol’s works were a constant negotiation of her public image.

This new book, edited by Kirsten Degel and Lærke Rydal Jørgensen, is a much-needed retrospective of Marisol’s career, coinciding with the decennial of her death. Marisol features reproductions of her sculptures and illustrations, alongside a series of essays on her life and the broader movements she worked within. Its publication aligns with Marisol: When Things Are Just Beginning (2026), the first retrospective exhibition dedicated to the artist’s drawings, also including selected sculptures, archival materials and clips of her from Warhol’s films. The exhibition is hosted in the Centro Botín, Santander, Spain, from May until October this year. .

All works by Marisol: © 2025 Estate of Marisol / ARS, NY / VISDA