MARISOL: Icon of Pop Art A Retrospective

During the 2027 Salzburg Summer Festival season, the Museum der Moderne presents an absolute highlight at its Mönchsberg venue: the Venezuelan-American artist Marisol’s first retrospective in Europe.

“I never wanted to be part of society. All my life I have wanted to be distinct.”
Marisol

Pop Art’s forgotten star

María Sol Escobar (1930–2016), a.k.a. Marisol, was one of the defining figures on the New York arts scene of the 1960s. Andy Warhol, a close friend, called her the “first girl artist with glamour.” Beginning in the 1970s, however, she shunned the public eye and gradually faded from the spotlight. Now her work is being rediscovered and feels more relevant than ever.

Her often life-size painted wooden sculptures combine everyday items with elements from pop culture, Dada, and folk art. She developed a singular visual language early on in which self-portraiture, social roles, and staged scenes are interwoven. The result is an unmistakable and often satirical imagery. Her work straddles the division between American Pop Art and European Nouveau Réalisme, without clearly belonging to either of these movements.

International exhibition tour

The exhibition is held in cooperation with the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk; Kunsthaus Zürich; and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, and was realized in collaboration with the Buffalo AKG Art Museum.

A publication accompanying the touring exhibition, in German and English, has been released by Hirmer.