iMAC/CCB – Museum of Contemporary Art and Architecture CentreBelém
Marisol: When Things Are Just Beginning
The first retrospective of Marisol Escobar's drawings, bringing together over one hundred works made from the 1950s until her death.
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Preview: written before the show opened
Late in the 1950s, after a successful show at Leo Castelli's New York gallery, Marisol left the United States. Castelli asked how she could leave "when things are just beginning", and she kept walking away at high points for the rest of her career. The drawings show what changed each time.
This is the first retrospective of them: over 100, from the 1950s to her death in 2016, almost all from the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, with sculptures, archive material and several Andy Warhol films she appeared in. Reviewing its Santander run this year, Florence Hallett in The New World picked out a 1958-60 sketchbook and found the sculptures "noticeably static". You end in the most delicate room: drawings from her last decade, when she had Alzheimer's.
It's on Floor -1, on the €15 museum ticket. The opening on 16 December at 7pm is free, after a 6pm talk with curator Laura Vallés Vílchez.
Look for
The 1958-60 sketchbook
Look for sixteen pages in the colours of her crayon box, with outlines of faces and hands filled in with ovals, petals and geometric patterns.
The Aquabell drawing
A drawing of a device Marisol invented so she could live among the fish on the ocean floor.
Triggerfish
A large sculpture of a triggerfish with its mouth wide open, which the curator links to missiles and Cold War technology.
The last room
Drawings from the final decade of her life, when she had Alzheimer's, including a portrait of her caregiver.
Good for
- Nerding Out
- Rainy Days
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Nearby
Image credits
9
- Marisol: When Things Are Just BeginningMarisol Escobar, Bequest of Marisol 2016
- Life is the Game – An immersive experience by Paulo FurtadoMAAT, 2026
- Pedro Cabrita Reis – “without sorrow of heart”Photo: João Ferrand, courtesy of the artist
- Exhibiting, Publishing: MAAT in Print (2016–2026)Photograph: Fábio Cunha, courtesy of EDP Foundation
- MAC/CCB – Museum of Contemporary Art and Architecture CentreHerbert wie, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Museu Nacional de ArqueologiaJose Luis Filpo Cabana, CC BY 3.0
- Museu de MarinhaNan Palmero, CC BY 2.0
- Museu Nacional dos CochesBosc d'Anjou / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
- MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and TechnologyStefan Bethke / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0