-
Artist: Marisol Escobar (French, 1930-2016)
Born to Venezuelan parents in Paris, France in 1930. Escobar's parents were wealthy and were able to travel between Europe, Venezuela, and the US. Her mother committed suicide in 1941, and soonafter, her father shipped her off to boarding school. These events affected her deeply. She had a talent for drawing and frequently won prizes during her schoolyears. Escobar studied at the Paris École-des-Beaux-Arts in 1949, and later returned to study under Hans Hofmann. She concentrated her artwork on three-dimensional portraits, taking inspiration from photographs and personal memories. Her sculpture acted as a satiric criticism of contemporary life. Her main concerns were of the roles of the woman in terms of middle-class femininity, the subject human vulnerability within a feminist critique, and the controlling male viewpoints of her Pop Art contemporaries.