Marisol Escobar, Venezuelan-born American artist, Died at 86

Maria Sol Escobar was born on May 22, 1930, and died on April 30, 2016.

She was otherwise known simply as Marisol,

She was a French sculptor of Venezuelan lineage.

Escobar worked in New York City.

All her religious beliefs might very well have had a great deal of influence upon her character and tendencies toward the arts.

Marisol’s, at age 16 and father moved Marisol along with her brother (Gustavo Escobar) to Los Angeles where Marisol began her study in the arts, after World War II and also their mother’s suicide.

Marisol Escobar started practicing painting and drawing during her teen years.

This was during these years she admitted self-inflicted acts of penance upon herself.

Marisol Escobar walked on her knees until they bled, kept silent for long periods and tied ropes tightly around her waist in emulation of saints and martyrs.

It was her father whom strengthen her interest in art and supported Marisol in her decision to continue along its course.

Over the period of her life, Marisol’s mother (Josefina Escobar) had been a well-known patron of the arts in Venezuela.

In 1950, during her studies in Paris, France in 1949, returning to study in New York .

In the year 1951, when Marisol discovered pre-Columbian artifacts, that she decided to give up painting and shift her focus to sculpture.

Many of her early paintings remain in the hands of friends and are rarely sold, making them difficult to assess.

His’s new direction led her to work with terracotta and wood.

Marisol Escobar remained primarily self-taught in sculpture, though she studied one clay course in a New York institution.

During 1958, his first exhibition was in the new Leo Castelli Gallery in New York, and it met with success.

Escobar has received awards including the 1997 Premio Gabriela Mistral from the Organization of American States for her contribution to Inter-American culture.

During 1978, Escobar was elected as a member in the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

She also worked has attracted increased interest, including a major retrospective in 2014 at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis, Tennessee.

During 2004, Marisol’s work was featured in “MoMA at El Museo,” an exhibition of Latin American artists held at the Museum of Modern Art.

Maria Sol Escobar passed away at 86 yrs old.