The New York Times reveals the death of artist Marisol—and her fascinating life:

Marisol, who leaves no immediate survivors, might or might not have cared about the renewed attention. When asked in 1964 how she would like her work to be seen by critics and the public, she seemed puzzled by the question.

“I don’t care what they think,” she said. […]

Critics were puzzled. Was Marisol a Pop artist or not? The critic Lucy Lippard, in “Pop Art” (1966), said no, calling her work “a sophisticated and theatrical folk art” that had nothing to do with Pop. It was often overtly political and funny — “clever as the very devil and catty as can be,” John Canaday wrote in The New York Times of her 1967 exhibition featuring sculpture caricatures of the British royal family, President Lyndon B. Johnson and other eminent figures. She drew on celebrity images, as well, creating sculptures of John Wayne and Bob Hope. […]

Leo Castelli included her in a group show with Jasper Johns and Rauschenberg in 1957 and that same year presented her first solo show. It could have been an immediate springboard into art-world fame if she had not bolted for Rome, where she lived for two years.

Marisol, an Artist Known for Blithely Shattering Boundaries, Dies at 85 (The New York Times)