Marisol and Warhol Take New York

For immediate release

Wednesday, May 26, 2021

The Andy Warhol Museum announces Marisol and Warhol Take New York, on view October 14, 2021 – February 14, 2022. This exhibition will chart the emergence of Marisol (1930–2016) and Andy Warhol (1928–1987) in New York during the dawn of Pop art in the early 1960s.

Marisol and Warhol Take New York explores the artists’ parallel rises to success, the formation of their artistic personas, their savvy navigation of gallery relationships and the blossoming of their early artistic practices from 1960 to 1968. The exhibition features key loans of Marisol’s work from major global collections, along with iconic works and rarely seen films and archival materials from The Warhol’s collection.

Born in Paris to Venezuelan parents, Marisol (María Sol Escobar) held a central position in the New York art scene and American Pop movement. Over time, however, she was written out of the white male-dominated Pop narrative. By situating her work in dialogue with Warhol’s, this exhibition seeks to reclaim the importance of her practice; reframe the strength, originality, and daring nature of her work; and reconsider her as one of the leading figures of the Pop era.

The exhibition highlights shared themes in the artists’ works: iconic Pop subjects of Coca-Cola and the Kennedy family; Warhol’s covertly queer early paintings with Marisol’s investigation of the female experience; the artists’ roles as influencers in the New York gallery scene; and expansive ideas of installation. Integrated throughout the exhibition are Warhol’s silent films, produced in 1963–1964, that he made of Marisol and which capture intimate and magnetic sides of her otherwise reserved persona. These never-before-realized juxtapositions of early works demonstrate Marisol’s clear influence on Warhol’s early career and reveal the sincerity of their artistic friendship.

“Although Marisol and Warhol overlapped for eight years and shared many parallel themes in their work, Warhol’s name is now synonymous with Pop, while Marisol’s was nearly eradicated from the American Pop history books. Over time, her work became marginalized, existing merely as a footnote to the movement that she inspired and shaped. This exhibition seeks to rewrite that history by recovering the artistic vision and singular voice of a woman whose legacy has been overlooked,” said Jessica Beck, Milton Fine curator of art. “Few people know and understand how wildly popular Marisol’s work was in the early 1960’s and how central she was to this explosive period in American art. This exhibition will change that by giving contemporary audiences the opportunity to see the power of her work today.”

As the first publication to explore the relationship between Marisol and Warhol, the exhibition catalogue includes contributions by Jessica Beck, Jeffrey Deitch, Angie Cruz, Eleanor Friedberger and Franklin Sirmans. Reviews and gallery records attest to her enormous popularity in the 1960s, but the history of her impact on the Pop movement is insufficient. This catalogue fills this void with texts that situate Marisol’s work within the art historical record, reveal the influence of her work and star power on Warhol, provide personal accounts of her impact in New York and honor her unwavering commitment to her singular vision. Created from extensive research of reviews, articles and archival documents, the catalogue also features a timeline of shared events and overlap in Marisol and Warhol’s early careers from 1949 to 1968.

The exhibition programs will include a film series curated by Alisha B. Wormsley, an interdisciplinary artist, cultural producer and presidential post-doctoral fellow at Carnegie Mellon University in the fall, and an original performance and score, Songs for Marisol, by Roberto Carlos Lange (aka Helado Negro) in February 2022.

Marisol and Warhol Take New York is curated by Jessica Beck, The Warhol’s Milton Fine curator of art. The exhibition debuts at The Warhol and will travel to the Pérez Art Museum Miami in April 2022.

Marisol and Warhol Take New York is presented by the Richard King Mellon Foundation and generously supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art, Jim Spencer and Michael Lin, Alice and Yaso Snyder and the WP Snyder Charitable Fund, Dawn and Chris Fleischner, and Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield. The Terra Foundation for American Art supports individuals, organizations, and communities to advance expansive understandings of American art. Established in 1978 and headquartered in Chicago, with an office in Paris, its grant program, collection, and initiatives are committed to fostering cross-cultural dialogues on American art locally, nationally, and internationally.