Lot 171
  • 171

Marisol

Estimate
250,000 - 350,000 USD
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Description

  • Marisol
  • Couple 2
  • oil and graphite on wood and metal
  • 96 by 27 3/4 by 10 in. 243.8 by 70.5 by 25.4 cm.
  • Executed in 1966.

Provenance

Collection of the Artist
Neuhoff Edelman Gallery, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above in 2007

Exhibited

New York, Sidney Janis Gallery, Marisol, April 1966, cat. no. 10, illustrated
Worcester Art Museum, Marisol, September - November 1971, n.p., illustrated
New York, Neuhoff Edelman Gallery, Marisol Works 1960-2007, September - October 2007, p. 44, illustrated

Literature

José Ramón Medina, Marisol, Caracas, 1968, p. 167, illustrated
Exh. Cat., Washington, D.C., National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Magical Mixtures: Marisol Portrait Sculpture, 1991, p. 23
Shelly Lee, Marisoyo = Marisol, Tokyo, 1993, pl. 30, illustrated
David Colman, “The Mask Behind the Face,” The New York Times, September 9, 2007, p. 12, illustrated
Carol Diehl, “Eye of the Heart,” Art in America, March 2008, p. 158, illustrated
Exh. Cat., Brooklyn Museum, Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958-1968, 2010, p. 36
Exh. Cat., Memphis, Brooks Museum of Art, Marisol: Sculptures and Works on Paper, 2014, p. 36

Condition

This work is in very good and sound condition overall. There are scattered abrasions and spots of loss to the wood, particularly along the edges and sides. Some of the irregularities to the wood appear to be original to the texture of the wood grain. There is scattered pitting and light surface abrasions to the aluminum heads. The lips of the left figure exhibit some slight paint loss, as does the helmet of the same figure.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

Born to Venezuelan parents in Paris, Marisol’s early artistic training was a transcontinental experience that brought her from Europe to the Jepson School in Los Angeles and then the Art Students League in New York. There, she had the opportunity to study under the tutelage of Hans Hofmann, and soon thereafter she would shed her surname Escobar in order to assume an identity distinctly her own, rather than that of her father. She quickly catapulted herself onto the New York art scene in the 1960s, armed with a precocious talent, an aura of mystery and cool chic that mesmerized her earliest admirers, but which would later become a catalyst for her critics. Even the typically laconic Andy Warhol quipped that Marisol was “the first girl artist with glamour.”

Marisol’s early work embraced some of the techniques and visual library of Jasper Johns’ work, as well as encompassing much of the expressive assemblage of Robert Rauschenberg’s Combines. After being inspired by Jasper John’s Target with Four Faces, she began putting little terracotta figures on her box constructions. Marisol’s sophisticated aesthetic immediately linked her to the new Pop Art movement, but her work remained in a category of its own, displaying a myriad of influences from sources as diverse as Pre-Colombian art and Surrealist imagery. Even today, Marisol’s art resists any linear curatorial reading.   

In 1966, Marisol had a one woman show at Sidney Janis Gallery, featuring the present work alongside perhaps the artist’s most well-known work, The Cocktail Party from 1965-1966. The gallery was dominated by sculptures in the artist’s signature anthropomorphic wood block constructions. The present work, Couple 2, made in the same year as the exhibition, depicts a male soldier on the right, clad in green military fatigues, metal helmet and rifle, with a female companion beside him. Executed in 1966, Couple 2 is a snapshot of a pivotal moment in American history in the wake of World War II and the Cold War and on the brink of the Vietnam War, when combat seemed ubiquitous and a generation of young men was consumed by war, yet the tide was turning in favor of anti-establishment rebellion. The dynamic in Couple 2 of a soldier and a female companion is a commentary on the social and political dynamics of the 1960s; each figure exists within a confined box, neatly drawn inside the prescribed boundaries, much like the rigid societal roles imposed in this time, both for men who were expected to fight for their country and for women who were supposed to stand idly by, a mere onlooker to the fate of their families. Marisol’s early works can be understood as an ongoing dialogue and exploration of the self in relation to society and family. A deeply important work that the artist kept in her own collection until 2007, Couple 2 is a visual coup d’etat whispering silent volumes of the identity and existence of a generation.