The Venezuelan sculptor who dazzled Andy Warhol

With an extensive career, the works of this Venezuelan artist occupy a special place in several American historical monuments, including at the heart of the US Capitol

Jaime Garvett

The origins of the Venezuelan sculptor María Sol Escobar are the opposite of those of a humble family. She was born in 1930 into a wealthy Venezuelan clan with oil and real estate businesses. Her parents were Venezuelan, but she was born in Paris. And the first years of it were spent between France, Venezuela and the United States.

What could have been a happy childhood took a tragic turn when María Sol's mother committed suicide. She was 11 years old. In the midst of the aftermath of her tragic event, her father chose to send her to a boarding school on Long Island, New York.

The episode led María Sol to take an almost total vow of silence. She refused to speak for years, except for what was strictly necessary. At the same time, she was developing her artistic skills.

Her academic artistic training began at the Otis Art Institute and the Jepson Art Institute in Los Angeles in 1946. There she mingled with artists that were in the spotlights, and her name changed to “Marisol”, as she would be known.

In 1949, she moved to France to study at the Parisian École des Beaux-Arts, but returned to New York for the Art Students League. Her works begun to show a distinctive sculptural style that allowed her to insert herself into the Pop Art movement. She was even earning the admiration and recognition of Andy Warhol, perhaps the best known pop artist ever.

The “pop” recognition

“She is the first female artist with glamor,” Warhol said about to Marisol. After several exhibitions, both the public and the critics professed admiration for her. But she confessed, “I don't care what they think.”

Marisol’s work auctioned for the highest value, precisely a statue of Warhol himself, simply titled “Andy.” It was sold for $794,500 at Christies auction event in New York in 2012.

Inserted in the Pop movement, her recognition and popularity increased. She concentrated her work on three-dimensional portraits, using inspiration “found in photographs or drawn from personal memories.”

The first museum to acquire a work by Marisol was the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, in New York, in 1962. The artist bequeathed her entire heritage to that institution.

The selected piece was Los Generales (1961-1962). The work shows Simón Bolívar and George Washington riding together a horse made from a wooden barrel.

The latest outstanding production of her is at the Memorial to the American Merchant Marine in the waters off Battery Park, New York. It is a bronze work inspired on a real event. The original sketch was created from a photograph taken by the Nazis after bombing an American submarine. The work was inaugurated in 1991.

Marisol in the US Capitol

Inside the Capitol building, in Washington D.C. there is one of the most emblematic work by Marisol. In the National Hall of Statues of the iconic building, there is a certified replica of the famous Father Damien sculpture, which Marisol created in 1969.

Marisol was a Catholic, so this sculpture was a tribute to a prominent religious figure from Hawaii. It is about Father Damien, also known as Saint Damien of Molokai, a Belgian religious man who accepted his work as a missionary in Hawaii and dedicated his life to the care of lepers on the island of Molokai. This was a place of exile for those who suffered from this disease.

Damien, whose real name is Jozef de Veuster, was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1994. His dedication to lepers caused him to contract the disease, and eventually died because of it.

Marisol's statue of Father Damien is preserved on the main facade of the Hawaii State Capitol in Honolulu. The one in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the United States Capitol is a replica made by Marisol herself.