CHICAGO — She is known as the “Mother of Pop Art.” Marisol Escobar is known as the female Andy Warhol of Paris, Venezuela and later the United States.
At Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, her story and name are cemented in the building with a ground level restaurant named in her honor. While she was known in the ’60s for her abstract and surreal wood work, her art is still turning heads.
“She’s a big influence in a lot of artists in Venezuela,” artist Alonso Galue said. “And I can say specifically my work how much she has influenced and evolved everything that I know.”
Escobar passed away in 2016 and her art has faded in Venezuela as that country deals with ongoing political unrest.
“Due to the dictatorship all of her cultural values have been destroyed. What was at the museum is no longer being taken care of,” Gaule said.
While the images of what’s happening in Venezuela travel the world, preserving the memory and work of Escobar has become a goal for the women of Chicago’s Teatro Vista. The group is hoping to build a theater production about Escobar’s life in Chicago.
