This text by poet and art critic Akiko Hyuga (1930–2002) was featured in the exhibition catalogue for Marisol Retrospective Exhibition, the first major exhibition of Paris-born Venezuelan- North American sculptor Marisol [Escobar] (b. 1930). The show was presented at a number of museums in Japan in 1995. In addition to this text by Hyuga, the exhibition catalogue featured an essay by Roberta Bernstein. Hyuga places Marisol in the context of the New York art scene of the sixties and seventies and explains that Marisol had spent much of her life in New York, and how the city art scene exercised considerable influence on her character. Hyuga considers the artist’s sensibility and how she expresses her emotions and feelings in her autobiographical works. Hyuga does not attempt to provide an “aseptic” analysis of Marisol’s work, but instead balances strict analysis of visual ideas, on the one hand, with a discussion of Marisol’s personality, on the other. The text considers Marisol a North American artist; the only reference to her Venezuelan background appears at the beginning of the second part of the essay, when Hyuga mentions her parents. Marisol was not an unknown artist in Japan when this catalogue was published: a show of her work had been held at Gallery Tokoro in Tokyo in 1989. Indeed, this essay is an extension of “Portrait of Marisol,” an article by Hyuga published on the occasion of that earlier show in issue n° 129 of the Quarterly Art.
On Marisol’s work, see Margarita D’Amico, “Marisol: Un acuario para soñar” (ICAA digital archive doc. no. 1163605); Roberto Guevara’s texts, “Con Marisol y a veces sin ella. Crónica de una no entrevista” (doc. no. 116373) and “Para encontrar a Marisol” (doc. no. 1163541); and from Águeda Hernández C., (untitled) [“Nunca ha sido expuesta en Venezuela...”] (doc. no. 1163350).
