Drawing with Sculptured Hand

Marisol (Marisol Escobar)

1960

A small mixed-media work in which colored pencil, graphite, and acrylic on cut cardboard is combined with a plaster cast of a hand so that a sculptural fragment literally intrudes into a lightly sketched portrait, collapsing drawing and object.

A ghostly, pale profile and faint line-drawn hands hover on the cardboard until your eye lands on the rough white plaster hand with painted nails that projects forward, its shadow and smudges forcing a tactile confrontation with the delicate drawing.

Dating from 1960, this hybrid drawing–sculpture exemplifies Marisol’s experiment of bringing cast body parts into picture space to challenge traditional portraiture and blur the boundaries between image, object, and the physical self.

Palette

Art Terms

Drawing Assemblage Sculpture Portrait Figurative Acrylic paint Colored pencil

Exhibitions

Faces and Figures: Drawings from the Collection of The Museum of Mo...

1954

Sculpture and Sculptor's Drawings

1941

Latin-American Art, 1931–1966, from the Museum Collection

1967

Five Sculptures from the Museum Collection

1968