Marisol, Self-Portrait Looking at the Last Supper, 1982-4, Wood, plywood, stone, plaster, aluminum, dye, charcoal, 121 ½” x 358” x 61”, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Photo via the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
One of the most unique modern artists, Maria Sol Escobar, otherwise simply known as Marisol, died on April 30, 2016 at the age of 85. The French-born, Venezuelan artist first caused a sensation in the New York art world in the early 60s when she debuted her Pop or Neo-Dada sculptures. Marisol carved life-size, droll self-portraits and portraits of all types of celebrities. Each sculpture was boxy like a sarcophagus, blending morbidity with the dry, witty commentary on popular culture.
In Self-Portrait Looking at the Last Supper, we see Marisol’s later engagement with Christian themes. In this work of art, she faithfully reproduced Leonardo’s painted masterpiece in sculpture in order to meditate on the event and its symbolic import. The figure of Jesus is carefully carved and the other figures are painted on wood panels. She also included a self-portrait gazing at the scene, which both brings the artist to the event and the event to a viewer.
