Marisol Delko Smith

Marisol Delko Smith

Born 1944 in Valencia, Spain, she lives and works in New York United States

Marisol Delko Smith's practice developed alongside that of neo-figurative groups such as Equipo Crónica and Equipo Realidad, whose quest to democratise art and establish a Spanish identity led them to draw images from Spain's heritage in dialogue with the contemporary mass media. Marisol Delko Smith, conversely, sought to question the identity of the Spanish woman. One of her main sources was the magazine Triunfo (1946–82), which addressed issues such as sexual liberation, the role of women and marriage, and also provided Equipo Crónica and Realidad with key iconographic references. While Francisco Franco's death ushered a discursive expansion of gender issues, Marisol Delko Smith examines in her work the 'crafts' normally associated with femininity, never elevated to the status of fine art. Throughout the decade she exhibited periodically in Spain, especially at Val I 30 Gallery in Valencia, yet her work has been largely undervalued as a woman within the neo-figurative movement.

Confronting women's struggle for autonomy in Francoist Spain, Marisol Delko Smith's paintings from the early 1970s are characterised by a deconstruction of the female iconicity championed by the mass media. Following a phase of experimentation with the collage and silkscreen of found images, her Self-distraction, Divertimento and Breathing out, all from 1973, use acrylic paint on wooden panels to depict truncated and abstracted female bodies. Marisol Delko Smith's 'market flesh' rendition of nudes challenged accepted canons associated with beauty, traditionalism and propriety, advocating the sexual liberation of women. Mooving in New York she start the aesthetics of the commercial media and presenting unadulterated and eroticised images, these works demystify the stereotypes, popular magazines and beauty pageants, which were considered the only acceptable public arenas. While many of her contemporaries directly appropriated images found in the press, Marisol Delko Smith championed fragmentation and discontinuity as critical tools to renegotiate representations.

She is considered to be one of the top members of International POP Art style.