The Colombian artist Beatriz González, whose powerful and haunting work dissected themes of political violence, conflict, and mass media imagery for over sixty years, has died at the age of 93.
A Haunting Memorial to the Nameless
One of her most profound public works, Auras Anónimas (Anonymous Auras), transformed Bogotá’s decaying Central Cemetery columbarium in 2009. On each of the 8,957 tombstones, González silkscreened one of eight silhouetted motifs depicting two figures carrying a body. This poignant installation serves as a stark memorial to the countless unnamed victims of Colombia’s protracted political and drug-related violence.
González’s artistic journey began by appropriating imagery from popular sources. She drew from sensationalist newspapers, religious pamphlets, and even pictures painted on buses. Her early significant work, Los Suicidas del Sisga (1965), was a suite of three paintings based on a newspaper photograph of a couple who died by suicide, rendered in her distinctive, flat blocks of colour.
From Furniture to Political Confrontation
In the 1970s, she began painting directly on to furniture sourced from Bogotá’s junk markets, critiquing middle-class tastes and the fetishisation of Western culture. A lurid Mona Lisa on a mirror stand and a version of a Renaissance Madonna on a dresser were typical of this period. For the 1978 Venice Biennale, where she represented Colombia, she created a large, kitschy copy of Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe on a folded curtain.
The political dimension of her work intensified dramatically after the 1985 siege of the Palace of Justice in Bogotá by M-19 guerrillas. The tragic event, which left nearly a hundred dead, inspired works like Señor Presidente, Qué Honor Estar Con Usted en Este Momento Histórico (1987). This diptych, based on a press photo of President Belisario Betancur, chillingly replaced a bouquet of flowers with a charred corpse in one panel.
International Recognition and a Lasting Legacy
Born in Bucaramanga in 1932, González studied architecture and art in Bogotá. Her first solo exhibition was in 1964 at the Museo de Arte Moderna de Bogotá. She enjoyed significant freedom in her career, supported by her family and her husband, architect Urbano Ripoll, who predeceased her in 2024.
While serving as chief curator at the Museo Nacional de Colombia from 1989 to 2004, her international reputation grew. Major retrospectives of her work were held in Caracas, New York, Berlin, Madrid, and Miami. A major retrospective is scheduled to open at the Barbican Art Gallery in London next month, having travelled from the Pinacoteca in São Paulo.
Beatriz González’s work, often using a bright, jarring palette to depict dark subjects, ensured that the pain and deaths reported in fleeting news headlines were not forgotten. She is survived by her son, Daniel, and two grandchildren.
