Five Hands and One Finger

Although best recognized for her sculpted and painted wooden portraits of world politicians and American pop culture idols, Marisol Escobar also experimented with a variety of printmaking materials and techniques, creating abstract images that concern the prescribed social roles and restraints then faced by women. In 1964, Marisol worked at Universal Limited Art Editions (ULAE) in West Islip, New York, where she primarily produced etchings and lithographs, such as Five Hands and One Finger. Her ULAE prints typically depict outlines of the artist’s hands and feet, as well as such stereotypical feminine objects as purses or high-heeled shoes. Executed entirely in monochrome, this print portrays five hands that emerge from an amorphous patch of black ink in the center of the composition. In this work, Marisol discards her identity as both an artist and a woman, leaving only a pattern of hands for which the ownership is unknown and limitless, defying any association with a particular gender.