Marisol created Figuras at a pivotal moment in her career. An émigré to the United States (her parents were Venezuelan), Marisol studied painting in Los Angeles and New York before transitioning to the production of sculpture in her late twenties. Figuras is one of these early sculptural experiments.

The sculpture’s multiple compartments probably were meant to evoke Mexican boxes filled with religious figures, a citation which speaks to the influence that both Latin American folk art and religion had on Marisol’s work. Although the compartments are arranged in rigidly linear registers, the figures, heads, and shapes within them are energetic combinations of round and pointed forms that draw the eye restlessly around the composition.

Marisol (1930–2016), Figuras. Cast bronze, 1959. Height (including base): 22 1/8 in. (56.2 cm). Gift of Florence Scott Libbey and Museum Purchase Fund, by exchange, 2007.79. Not on view.*