22 May 1930, Paris, France -

30 April 2016, New York, NY, USA

Maria Sol Escobar, otherwise simply known as Marisol, was born to wealthy Venezuelan parents in Paris but after her mother committed suicide when she was 11, she finished her education in the USA and ended up studying abstract expressionism under Hans Hofmann. Her friend Andy Warhol described her as 'the first girl artist with glamour', and she appeared in two of his films: The Kiss (1963) and The 13 Most Beautiful Women (1964). For Rolando Peña she was the 'undisputed queen of pop art', although Marisol preferred not to be identified as a pop artist. Her art was well received but she was uncomfortable with the media spotlight and at the height of her career she left new York and made fewer works in the 1970s and 1980s.