Figuras

Artist Marisol (Escobar) American (born France), 1930-2016

Date1959

DimensionsH (including base): 22 1/8 in. (56.2 cm)

MediumCast bronze

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LineGift of Florence Scott Libbey and Museum Purchase Fund, by exchange

Object number

2007.79

Not on View

Collections

Sculpture

Published References

Collischan, Judy, Marisol, Purchase, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, 2001, repr.(col.), pl. 2, p. 27.

Exhibition History

Purchase, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College; Wilmington, Delaware Art Museum, Marisol, 2001-2002.

Montreal, Quebec, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; Toledo, OH, Toledo Museum of Art; Buffalo, NY, Buffalo AKG Art Museum; Dallas, TX, Dallas Museum of Art, Marisol: A Retrospective, May 7, 2023 - June 15, 2025.

Label TextMarisol created Figuras at a pivotal moment in her career. A French émigré to the United States, Marisol studied painting in Los Angeles and New York before transitioning to the production of sculpture in her late twenties. Figuras represents one of these early sculptural experiments. The sculpture’s multiple compartments probably were meant to evoke Mexican boxes filled with religious figures, a citation which speaks to the influence that both Latin American folk art and religion had on Marisol’s work (Marisol’s parents were Venezuelan). Although the compartments are arranged in rigidly linear registers, the figures, heads, and shapes within them are energetic combinations of round and pointed forms that draw the eye restlessly around the composition.