- 171
Marisol
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
Neuhoff Edelman Gallery, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above in 2007
Exhibited
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
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
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.
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Catalogue Note
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.