Marisol Escobar’s wry portrait of Ruth Klingman, titled simply “Ruth” is on display at The Rose Art Museum this fall. Ruth is included in Passage, a wide-ranging selection of work from the permanent collection of the Rose.
Ruth Klingman had been Jackson Pollock’s mistress, and was the lone survivor of the car crash that killed Pollock and another friend in 1956. Constructed 5 years after Pollock’s death, in 1961, Marisol’s Ruth is made of carved and found wood, plaster casts, and found objects. Marisol’s signature draftsmanship details Ruth’s hair and facial features, using loose line work to create casual but accurate portraiture. Ruth is a literally multifaceted portrait of a misunderstood, complicated woman who was—as Marisol herself was for a time—a part of Andy Warhol’s New York inner circle.
Marisol, an influential and once-widely-exhibited pop artist, is due for a long-overdue retrospective at the Albright Knox gallery
A working sculptor 