Otros idiomas:
Beatriz González
Error al crear miniatura: Falta archivo
Fotografía de Beatriz González, tomada por Hernán Díaz. Archivo BLAA.
Datos generales
Nombre Beatriz González Aranda
Fecha de nacimiento 16 de noviembre de 1932
Nacionalidad Colombiana Bandera de Colombia }}
Ocupación Pintora, grabadora, historiadora y crítica de arte
Primaria Colegio de las Franciscanas de Bucaramanga.
Bachillerato Colegio de las Franciscanas de Bucaramanga.
Estudios universitarios Estudió artes con Juan Antonio Roda en la Universidad de los Andes e hizo un curso de grabado en la Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten de Rotterdam.
País de nacimiento Colombia, Bandera de Colombia }}
Ciudad de nacimiento Bucaramanga
Familia Valentín González (Padre), Clementina (Aranda),Jorge (Hermano), Lucila (Hermana)


Beatriz González Aranda, Colombian artist, historian, and art critic, was born in the city of Bucaramanga, capital of the department of Santander, on November 16, 1932[1]. She studied art at the Universidad de los Andes with Juan Antonio Roda and took a course in printmaking at the Academie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. Her work is technically prolific and diverse, although her work in painting is noted, and her themes are restricted to popular images and the political and social dimensions of recent Colombian history. Since the 1980s she has carried out important research on the history of Colombian art in the 19th and 20th centuries, contributing new knowledge on figures such as José María Espinosa, Ramón Torres Méndez, Roberto Páramo, José Gabriel Tatis, Fídolo Alfonso González Camargo, and Luis Caballero Holguín, and also reconstructing the trajectory of caricature in the country. Her work has been key to the consolidation of the institutions of art in Colombia, through her leadership and advisory to several museums in Bogotá on curatorial processes, education, and acquisition. Her work has been shown in individual and collective exhibitions at the national and international level and has been the object of multiple tributes and awards.

Biography

Beatriz González Aranda was the third daughter of Clementina Aranda Mantilla and Valentín González Rangel, a politician from Barichara. She was born on November 16, 1932 in Bucaramanga, Santander, and studied at the Franciscan School of the Holy Trinity. In 1956 she entered Colombia’s National University in Bogotá to study architecture with three other women. Two years later she decided to suspend her studies, returned to Bucaramanga and worked designing window displays and sets for parades. She returned to Bogotá in 1959 to take a course at the Universidad de América on the Renaissance in Italy, taught by Marta Traba. That same year she enrolled in the fine arts program at the Universidad de los Andes with an interest in becoming a graphic designer.

During her stay at university, she took classes with Juan Antonio Roda, Marta Traba, and Ramón de Zubiría, among others.[2]Marta Traba shared with González her interest in the work of Fernando Botero, a central influence during this period of early training. The Universidad de los Andes provided her with an alternative space in which she set up her studio with other classmates and developed her work, which influenced her final decision to become an artist. During this period, she also established a deep friendship with the painter Luis Caballero.

Her interest in printed images and the search for a style of her own began in painting classes with Juan Antonio Roda: "I realized that I could not paint from natural models [...] although I was a good draughtswoman, I couldn’t paint in those colors, it seemed horrible to me [...] I found a poster of the Surrender of Breda and I copied it with a lot of turpentine, very watered down, and that was a success and that’s how I began." Shortly after graduating in 1963, she was chosen as one of the first young artists to have a solo exhibition at MAMBO, the Bogotá Museum of Modern Art, thanks to a program of the museum, organized by Marta Traba, dedicated to showing the work of new talent.

González began to wonder how real the reproductions in art books were, and from that her interest in the imperfections of the printed image was born. Tired of producing variations on Velázquez and Vermeer, she happened upon the photograph of the Sisga suicides in the newspaper. In 1965, she presented the painting derived from this image at the XVII National Artists’ Salon. The work was initially rejected "because a member of the jury said it was a bad Botero." However, the decision was reconsidered and the work ended up receiving the second special jury award. From that moment on, Beatriz González began to take an interest in local tragedies through the media. She also ventured into materials beyond the classic instruments of painting: "One day I got tired of oil, of canvas, of fine materials.” Although critics constantly referred to Beatriz González as a pop artist, she always made it clear that Warhol did not interest her at the time; she preferred abstract expressionism.

After studying for a year at the Academie van Beeldende Kunsten in the Netherlands in 1966, González returned to Colombia and began her most characteristic work, that depicting "the heroes of Colombia's long history, the portraits of ‘decent’ families that were published in the newspapers, episodes from the social pages and the crime report, naive scenes painted on buses, popular stamps and stickers for sale at the Pasaje Rivas." Her works Notes for an Extensive History of Colombia I and II (Apuntes para la historia extensa de Colombia I y II) earned her the second prize in the XIX National Artists’ Salon in Colombia and unleashed a confrontation with the historian Arturo Abella, who considered her work a mockery and a knockoff, whereas Beatriz considered it a "version" of the portraits produced during the wars of independence.

In addition to painting, Beatriz González has been a curator, teacher, art critic, and art historian. As she explained in the interview with Hans Ulrich Orbist, "I paint part-time and write part-time." As a historian, she has published Ramón Torres Méndez, entre lo pintoresco y la picaresca (between the picturesque and the picaresque) (1985), Roberto Páramo, pintor de la sabana (painter of the savannah) (1986), José Gabriel Tatis, un pintor comprometido (a committed painter) (1987), Fidolo Alfonso González Camargo (1987), Las artes plásticas en el siglo xix (visual arts in the 19th century) in the Great Encyclopedia of Colombia (1993), José María Espinoza: abanderado del arte en el siglo XIX (standard bearer of art in the 19th century) (1998), Andrés de Santa María: un precursor solitario (a lonely forerunner) (1998), Artistas en tiempos de guerra: Peregrino Rivera Arce (Artists in times of war: Peregrino Rivera Arce) (1999), ¡Quédese quieto! (Stand still!) Gaspard-Félix Tournachon “Nadar” (Swim) (1995), Auguste Le Moyne en Colombia 1828-1841 (Auguste Le Moyne in Colombia 182801841) (2003), Manual de Arte en el Siglo XIX en Colombia (Manual of Art in the 19th century in Colombia) (2013), Pobre de mí, no soy sino un triste pintor: cartas de Luis Caballero a Beatriz González (Poor me, I am but a sad painter: letters from Luis Caballero to Beatriz González) (2014), and other works. She was curator of the art and history collections at the National Museum for fourteen years, director of education at the Bogotá Museum of Modern Art for thirteen years, and has been an advisor to the art collections of the Banco de la República since 1985.

Artistic career

Beginnings

In 1964, González presented work for the first time in Bogotá with an exhibition on The Lacemaker by the seventeenth century Dutch painter Jan Vermeer. Her work was characterized by vivid colors, and harmonious planes and compositions. A year later in 1965 came the variations on The Girl-Montage (La niña-montaje), in which she reaffirmed her chromatic refinement. She also produced two versions of the work The Sisga Suicides (Los suicidas del Sisga)[3]from a press photograph, winning her second special jury prize in painting at the XVII National Artists’ Salon in 1965.

During the 1970s, Beatriz González once again set a precedent in the history of Colombian art by introducing new materials into her works: this time furniture and curtains. President Julio César Turbay was, at the beginning, one of the leading subjects of González’s work: "I painted Turbay in the Baseboard of Tragedy (zocalo de la tragedia) and the Baseboard of Comedy (zocalo de la comedia), works in which I wanted to say that this country moved between crime and decoration." The themes developed in her painting began to turn more and more towards Colombia's political world.[4]

From the 1980s onwards, after the siege of the Palace of Justice and the recruitment of her son by the army, her work focused more on pain: "The news is temporary; in a way, the artist's job is not to allow death and pain to be forgotten." In order to cover these themes, González decided to return to oil painting, making "chaotic and symbolic" compositions. According to the artist, whenever she felt uneasy about what she was painting, she made ethical corrections to the work.

During the 1990s, political interest in Beatriz González's work focused on the victims of the armed conflict. One of the news pieces she developed into an artwork during this period was that of the drowned, no-name “NN” corpses cast into rivers. Later she worked on the massacre of Las Delicias in 1997 and the suffering of women in the series Dolores. In 2010, documentary filmmaker Diego García Moreno made Beatriz González, Why Are You Crying? (Por qué llora si ya reí), a film that shows the process of making the work Anonymous Auras (Auras Anónimas), an intervention on four columbaria, still preserved in the Central Cemetery of Bogotá, which to date is the only place of memory dedicated to the anonymous victims of the violence unleashed in the capital city in April 1948 after the assassination of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán. The work has brought the artist into a legal conflict with the district administration over the need to protect a space for memory in contravention of urban renewal plans that would destroy parts of the columbaria in order to carry out public works. Her artwork The Sisga Suicides (Los Suicidas del Sisga) turned 50 in 2015, and coincidentally all three of its versions were exhibited at the Tate Modern that same year, as well as in other large retrospectives in the following years. The Sisga Suicides has turned out to be a central work in Colombian art history, guiding the development of other artists such as Maria de la Paz Jaramillo who has recognized in González’s piece the source of her interest in press images

Features of her work

In all her work, Beatriz González alludes not only to a way of being, to a particular idiosyncrasy, but also to the taste of the people, which the artist treats as a sociologist, although she does not fail to include a dose of irony regarding the country and the Colombian people. Parallel to these works made from press photographs and popular stamps.

Beatriz González has worked on numerous versions of works by great masters, from Vermeer's The Lacemaker to Pablo Picasso's Guernica, which she called Mural for a Socialist Factory. The artist has produced variations on Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Sandro Botticelli, Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres, Jean-Francois Millet, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Edgar Degas, Pierre-August Renoir, Georges Braque, and others. Two factors have led Beatriz González to work with famous works from the history of painting: her inability to compose and her admiration for artwork. The painter confesses to having a prejudiced vision of art history. Thus, for instance, the image of Botricelli's Birth of Venus emerges from some towel racks in the shape of a shell; from a striped sheet of MadeFlex, a still life by Braque; from a hairbrush with a circular mirror, a tondo by Raphael.

This reworking of images, which was even criticized as an act of copying by historian Arturo Abella, is now considered a form of visual appropriation for the production of a new and authentic work, as proposed by the exhibition Beatriz González: The Second Original (Beatriz González: el segundo original) held at the Universidad de los Andes and La Tertulia Museum of Modern Art. Part of this originality lies in the fact that González initially related to these great works of art indirectly, through the reproductions found in postcards, encyclopedias, and art books that were difficult to come across at the time, which led her to declare that Colombia had denied its relationship to culture because of its underdevelopment.

Working on surfaces of varied materials and textures (metal sheets, various woods, towels, rubber, bedspreads, etc.), González had to constantly invent new ways of making art. The exploration of techniques and materials has resulted in some cases from the critiques leveled at her, as when her university classmates told Beatriz that she was a poor draughtswoman but a good painter. Leaning on that judgment, the artist made incursions into media such as serigraphy, heliography, and painting on furniture and objects, turning imperfection into an intention. Her interest in the taste of common folk led her to places like Pasaje Rivas in Bogotá, where she acquired popular objects for producing her works. Beatriz González has not only mastered each of the techniques—including oils, glazes, and acrylics—but she also works with a very wide range of colors. She has remarked that hers is a "painting with temperature," sensitive to the emotional tone of the contents that she approaches, from an initial palette inspired by the dome of Church of the Holy Family in Bucaramanga to a dark palette that denotes the somber character of the turn of the century in a society ravaged by sociopolitical violence.

From her numerous works depicting to the figure of President Julio Cesar Turbay (graphite drawings, the silkscreen printing Interior Decoration [Decoración de interiores]), to her dramatic versions of the death of the drug dealer Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha (Mute Portraits [Retratos mudos]), to Las Ibáñez, the tragedy vignettes (Uxoricide [Un uxoricidio]) and the comedy vignettes (Turbay Decorating a Personality [Turbay condecorando a un personaje]), the themes related to the presidents of the Republic (Colombian Headdress [Plumario colombiano], The Parrots [Los papagayos], Mr. President What an Honor to Be With You at This Historical Moment [Sr. Presidente qué honor estar con Ud. en este momento histórico], an allusion to the events surrounding the taking of the Palace of Justice in 1985), the cyclist Martin Emilio "Cochise" Rodriguez, the cyclist Lucho Herrera and his apotheosis with President Virgilio Barco, the footballer Rene Higuita, the soldiers dressed for war, the murdered men, and so many others. There is at this point a deep and exclusive interest in all things Colombian, both from historical and contemporary perspectives.

But the change is not merely thematic; it is also formal and substantive. The handling of the formal elements (planes, colors, compositions) is now more complex and starker and the intention is to give account, through those elements, of how chaotic and dramatic the situation is, more concise and swifter. On the occasion of the Fifth Centennial of the discovery of America in 1992, Beatriz González made a series of silkscreen prints of an indigenous person in a boat. Besides from her paintings and drawings, González has extensively produced prints [See Volume 6, Arte, p. 130 and 131].

"My painting is not the search for an end through ironic themes, but rather a painting with temperature. I don't make cheesy or corny objects with the same kind of morbidity that moves certain people to collect objects in so-called bad taste. I don’t think the society in which I work is a cheesy society, but it is an excessive one, in every sense and proportion. [...]
What interests me is taste. I am interested in why a person places certain objects and not others in their home. If I had been but a conceptual artist, since 1970 I would have put up a card saying: go and see so-and-so’s house. And another one: go and see so-and-so's house. But since I'm an old-fashioned artist, I need to paint and I paint. I wonder why the hell the picture of the suicides in the newspaper caught my attention. Was it the grayness of the face, similar to some work I was doing at the time, or was it that folksy thing of two people entering into a suicide pact and joining hands for a photo to send to their relatives? But no, it can’t be that because I read about it later. It was the photo itself, the hat he was wearing, anyway [...]
In me there is a predisposition to look at people's taste.
Beatriz Gonzalez

In addition to her artistic output, González has compiled a vast archive over the years that traces, among various other topics, the careers of various notable artists of the second half of the twentieth century as well as the most important events of recent Colombian history. Her artistic projects since the nineties have discussed the relationship between the Colombian people and press images of violence and mourning over the murders, kidnappings, disappearances, and forced displacements, using repetition as a visual exercise that questions indifference and habituation in the face of constant tragic war scenes. Her work proposes exercises of memory that seek to make evident the unmentioned and silenced episodes of the armed conflict through the graphic techniques of serial reproduction, or else through painting that preserves the symbols of violence in the face of the ephemerality of the press image. Her most recent production also investigates the victimization of the civilian population on account of other events such as natural disasters and the humanitarian crisis of Venezuelan citizens moving through Colombian territory after fleeing the harsh political and economic conditions of the last decade in the neighboring country.

  • 2019: Study for War and Peace (Estudio para telones La guerra y la paz)
  • 2017: Displacement Recto and Verso (Desplazamiento anverso y reverse)
  • “Elemental Landscapes (Paisajes elementales)
  • 2015: Zulia, Zulia, Zulia
  • 2012 - 2011: Comedy and Tragedy (La comedia y la tragedia)
  • 2010: Endless Alonso Garcés Gallery (Sinfin Alonso Garcés Galería)
  • 2009: Furtive Letter (Carta Furtiva)
  • 2008: Rancho Grande Radio (Ondas de rancho grande)
  • 2007-2009: Anonymous Auras (Auras anónimas)
  • 2006: Where Clarity Itself is Shade, recent work (Donde la misma claridad es sombra Obra reciente)
    • "Vistahermosa"
  • 2005: Anthology accompanying the launch of Beatriz González’s book
  • 2004: The Instant Image I (La imagen instantánea I)
  • 2003: Verónica.
  • 2002: Wallpaper (Papel de colgadura)
  • 2001: Dolores, recent work (Dolores. Obra reciente)
  • 2000: Beatriz González
    • "Dolores"
  • 1998: What an Honor to Be With You at This Historical Moment (Qué honor estar con usted en este momento histórico)
  • 1997: Self-Portrait, Nude, Crying (Autorretrato desnuda llorando)
  • 1997: Las Delicias
  • 1996: Thirty Years of Graphic Work by Beatriz González (Treinta años en la obra gráfica de Beatriz González)
  • 1995: The Color of Death (El color de la muerte)
  • 1994: Beatriz González Retrospective (Beatriz González. Retrospectiva)
  • 1992: 1/500 Drawing, Painting, Silkscreen (1/500. Dibujo, pintura, serigrafías)
  • 1991: The Constituent Assembly (La Constituyente)
  • 1990: Beatriz González, A Decadev1980-1990 (Beatriz González. Una década)
  • 1984: Beatriz González Retrospective (Beatriz González. Retrospectiva)
  • 1983: National Identity (Identidad nacional)
  • 1980: Color Television (Televisión en colores)
  • 1979: Beatriz González’s Curtains (Los telones de Beatriz González)
  • 1978: Ten Meters of Renoir (Diez metros de Renoir)
  • 1976: Retrospective—An Inventory (Retrospectiva - Un inventario)
  • 1964: Lacemakers (Encajeras)

Works by Beatriz González in the Collections of the Banco de la República

Works by Beatriz González in the Collections of the Banco de la República
Title Year Location Technique Registration number
My Struggle (Mi lucha) 1974 Reserve Print AP3598
Archbishop Viceroy as Salome (El arzobispo virrey como Salomé) 1981 Reserve Print AP1174
Funeral Mound for Adolescent Soldiers (Túmulo funerario para soldados bachilleres) 1986 Reserve Print AP3610
Living Nature II (Naturaleza viva II) 1969 Reserve Painting AP2163
Tapen tapen 1994 Reserve Painting AP2746
Alcibiadillo de Colombia... Tragic Death. Impressive Scene in the Middle of the San Martín Furniture Store. The Body of the Homeless Bullfighter Murdered Yesterday by the Underworld. (Alcibiadillo de Colombia... muerte trágica. Impresionante escena en pleno salón de la mueblería "San Martín". El cadáver del torero indigente asesinado por el hampa ayer. ) 1970 Reserve Print AP3580
Korean Veteran Kills Mother-In-Law, Wife, Then Kills Himself (Veterano de Corea mata a la suegra, a la esposa y luego se suicida) 1968 Reserve Print AP3581
Oh! Mamacita, when you bury me, please dress me in the yellow suit and tie I bought recently, something that makes me feel so happy at the moment…(Oh!, mamacita, cuando me vayan a enterrar le agradezco que me visten con el traje amarillo y la corbata que compró en estos días, cosa que me sienta en ese momento el pavito más contento de mi vida...)(Complete title in the Asoc. document) 1969 Reserve Print AP3582
One of the Antisocials Killed Yesterday was Disguised as a Motorcyclist but was Covering his Uniform with a Raincoat (Disfrazado de motorista de circulación pero cubriendo el uniforme con una gabardina iba uno de los antisociales muertos ayer) 1978 Reserve Print AP3156
Amparito's Graphic Shows How the Body of the Unfortunate Old Man Catalino Díaz Izquierdo was Found (La gráfica de Amparito muestra la forma como fue hallado el cadáver del desafortunado anciano Catalino Díaz Izquierdo) 1968 Reserve Print AP3584
Harakiri in the Middle of the Street (Harakiri en plena calle) 1970 Reserve Print AP3585
Woman Murdered in a Lodge, it hasn’t been possible to identify her (Asesinada mujer en hospedaje, no ha sido posible identificarla) 1969 Reserve Print AP3586
The Happiness of Pablo Leyva: IV. I Am a Bricklayer (La felicidad de Pablo Leyva: IV. Yo soy albañil) 1977 Reserve Print AP3587
The Happiness of Pablo Leyva: V. I Am a Nurse (La felicidad de Pablo Leyva: V. Yo soy enfermera) 1977 Reserve Print AP3588
The Happiness of Pablo Leyva: III. I Am a Teacher (La felicidad de Pablo Leyva: III. Yo soy maestra) 1977 Reserve Print AP3589
Rembrandt Self-Portrait, Copy (Autorretrato Rembrandt-copia) 1966 Reserve Print AP3590
González Postcards: Soviet-Colombian Relations Resumed (Postales González. Se reanudan relaciones Colombo Soviéticas) 1978 Reserve Print AP3591
González Postcards: Blackberry Milkshake (Postales González. Mora en leche) 1978 Reserve Print AP3592
González Postcards: The Visual Arts Biennial (Postales González. La bienal de artes plásticas) 1978 Reserve Print AP3593
Happy birthday 1971 Reserve Print AP3594
The Other Face of Ludwig Van (La otra cara de Ludwig Van) 1973 Reserve Print AP3595
The Church is in Danger (La iglesia está en peligro) 1976 Print Painting AP3596
Jackeline Oasis 1975 Reserve Print AP3597
Stamp in Memory (Cromo in memoria) 1976 Reserve Print AP3599
Illustrated News (La actualidad ilustrada) 1974 Reserve Print AP3600
The Time Has Come (Ya llegó la fecha) 1977 Reserve Print AP3601
The Setbacks of Royalty (Los reveses de la realeza) 1974 Reserve Print AP3602
The Concordat (El concordato) 1993 Reserve Print AP3603
Blue Bolívar (Bolívar azul) 1983 Reserve Print AP3604
Red Bolívar (Bolívar rojo) 1983 Reserve Print AP3605
Yellow Bolívar (Bolívar Amarillo) 1983 Reserve Print AP3606
Baseboard of Comedy (Zócalo de la comedia) 1983 Reserve Print AP3607
Baseboard of Tragedy (Zócalo de la tragedia) 1983 Reserve Print AP3608
Colombian Headdress (Plumario colombiano) 1983 Reserve Print AP3609
Funeral Mound for Adolescent Soldiers (Túmulo funerario para soldados bachilleres) 1986 Reserve Print AP3610
Lucky Rabbit Island (La isla del conejo de la suerte) 1993 Reserve Print AP3611
Uxoricide (Uxoricidio ) 1984 Reserve Print AP3612
Lucho and Bachué (Lucho y Bachué) 1987 Reserve Print AP3613
Interior Decoration (Decoración de interiores) 1981 Reserve Print AP3614
This Biennial is a Luxury that an Underdeveloped Country Should not Afford Itself (Esta bienal es un lujo que un país subdesarrollado no se debe dar) 1981 Reserve Print AP3615
The Time Has Come II (Ya llegó la fecha II) 1979 Reserve Print AP3616
Porfirio 1983 Reserve Print AP3617
Viva México 1979 Reserve Print AP3618
Colombian Still Life (Bodegón colombiano) 1983 Reserve Print AP3619
Yubilí 1979 Reserve Print AP3620
1/500 1992 Reserve Print AP3621
Tales for City Kids (Cuentos para citaniños) 1973 Reserve Print AP3622
Mute Portraits (Retratos mudos) 1990 Reserve Painting AP4236
Tears and Fish (Lágrimas y peces) 1997 Reserve Painting AP4243
Kennedy (John Fitzgerald), American Democratic politician (1917-1963), president of the United States in 1961. He was assassinated. (Kennedy (John Fitzgerald), político demócrata norteamericano (1917-1963), presidente de los Estados Unidos en 1961. Murió asesinado.) 1971 Reserve Painting AP5024
Sun Maid 1974 Reserve Painting AP5289
Death of a Picador (La muerte del picador) 1973 Reserve Painting AP5320
Window Ajar (Ventana entreabierta) 2001 Reserve Painting AP6190

Timeline

  • 1932: Born in the city of Bucaramanga, Santander, to Valentín González Rangel and Clementina Aranda Mantilla. Younger sister of Jorge and Lucila.
  • 1948: Study at the Franciscan School of Bucaramanga.
  • 1956: Arrives in Bogota to study architecture at Colombia's National University. After two years decides to switch degrees.
  • 1958: Travels to Bucaramanga and designs window displays and sets for parades.
  • 1959: Returns to Bogotá and enters the Faculty of Arts at the Universidad de los Andes.
  • 1962: Graduates and holds an exhibition with colleagues Camila Loboguerrero and Gloria Martínez.
  • 1964: Holds first exhibition thanks to a program promoted by the Bogotá Museum of Modern Art, dedicated to showcasing new talent. Obtains a mention in the First Intercol Salon.
  • 1965: The Sisga Suicides (Los Suicida del Sisga) is rejected by the admission jury for the XVII National Artists' Salon. The decision is reconsidered and the work obtains the second special jury prize.
  • 1966: Travels to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to take a course in engraving at the Academie van Beeldende Kunsten.
  • 1969: Her work It's a Copy (Es Copia) is rejected at the XX Salon of Colombian Artists. She obtains a prize in the Southern Engraving Salon.
  • 1970: Begins her period as director of education at the Bogotá Museum of Modern Art, a position she held until 1983.
  • 1971: Selected by the Colombian Institute of Culture as Colombia's representative to the XI Biennial of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
  • 1973: Exhibits her furniture alongside Luis Caballero at the Bogotá Museum of Modern Art.
  • 1976: Ends furniture work and begins experimenting with textile surfaces.
  • 1978: Launches the guide school of the Museum of Modern Art. She is selected for the 28th Venice Biennale.
  • 1980: Her work becomes political during the administration of president Turbay Ayala.
  • 1985: Begins working as a member of the Banco de la República advisory board for visual arts.
  • 1990: Becomes curator of the art and history collections of Colombia's National Museum. Receives an extraordinary mention at the XXXIII National Artists' Salon for her career.
  • 1993: Exhibition For the Humor of Art (Por humor al arte) at the Luis Angel Arango Library, Bogotá.
  • 1996: Traveling exhibition by Banco de la República
  • 1997: Individual exhibition on the Las Delicias massacre at the Garcés Velásquez Gallery in Bogotá.
  • 1998: Retrospective exhibition What an Honor to Be With You at This Historical Moment (Qué honor estar con usted en este momento histórico) at el Museo del Barrio, New York.
  • 2000: Named honorary master of visual arts by the University of Antioquia.
  • 2001: Produces Dolores, an exhibition based on the images of the pro-indigenous American killed by the guerrillas.
  • 2004: Retires from her position as curator of Colombia's National Museum.
  • 2006: Honored with "Life and Work" award by the Ministry of Culture.
  • 2009: Curator and researcher of the exhibition La caricatura en Colombia a partir de la Independencia at Banco de la República.
  • 2010: The documentary filmmaker Diego García Moreno releases the film Beatriz González, Why Are You Crying? documenting the process of making Anonymous Auras (Auras Anónimas).
  • 2011: Retrospective exhibition at the Medellín Museum of Modern Art.
  • 2013: Universidad de los Andes publishes the book Manual de arte del siglo XIX, written by Beatriz González.
  • 2014: Publishes the book Pobre de mí, no soy sino un triste pintor, collection of correspondence with Luis Caballero.
  • 2015: Her work The Sisga Suicides turns 50. She exhibits the three versions of the work at the Tate Modern.
  • 2016: Exhibition at the La Tertulia Museum in Cali
  • 2017: Retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Bordeaux.
  • 2019: The Perez Art Museum in Miami (PAMM) and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) hold a major retrospective of Beatriz González's work.
  • 2020: University of the Andes awards her an honorary doctorate for her contributions to art and art history in Colombia. The Banco de la República pays tribute to the artist with the exhibition Beatriz González

See also

References

  1. [*] Her year of birth has recently been rectified by researchers Natalia Gutiérrez Montes and José Ruiz Díaz in the curatorial process behind the Banco de la República retrospective in 2020
  2. Alonso Garcés Gallery. Beatriz González. http://www.alonsogarcesgaleria.com/BGonzalez.htm
  3. ‘Los suicidas del sisga’ cumplen 50 años (The Sisga Suicides Turn 50) https://www.semana.com/cultura/articulo/los-suicidas-del-asista-por-beatriz-gonzalez/440364-3
  4. Germán Rubiano Caballero. Biography of Beatriz González. Great Encyclopedia of Colombia of the Circle of Readers, Biographies Volume. Editorial El Tiempo.

Bibliography

  • Ardila, J. (1974). Apuntes para la historia extensa de Beatriz González. Bogotá: Tercer Mundo.
  • Serrano, E. (1976). Beatriz González. Cali: La Tertulia Museum of Modern Art.
  • Beatriz González. (1984). Exposición Retrospectiva (Retrospective Exhibition) 1962-1984, Bogotá: Museum of Modern Art.
  • Rubiano, G., and Rodríguez, M. (1990). Beatriz González, una década (a decade) 1980-1990, Bogotá: National University Art Museum.
  • Traba, M. (1977). Los muebles de Beatriz González (The furniture of Beatriz González). Bogotá: Museum of Modern Art.
  • Ponce de Leon, C. et al. (1998). Beatriz González, una pintora de provincia (a provincial painter). Bogotá, Carlos Valencia Editores.
  • González, B. (2008). Visiones paródicas: risas, demonios, jocosidades y caricaturas (Parodic visions: laughter, demons, jokes, and caricatures). Revista de Estudios Sociales, 30, p. 72-79.
  • Gutiérrez, N. (2016). Arte colombiano años noventa (Colombian art 1990s). Credencial Historia, 319.
  • Laverde, M.C. (1999). Desplazamientos, decisiones y tránsitos en la obra de Beatriz González (Displacements, decisions, and transits in the work of Beatriz González). Revista Nómadas, 10, p. 108-122.

Art collection of the Banco de la República

Credits

1.Research and text Germán Rubiano Caballero for Banrepcultural

2.Updates and expansion: Oscar Rodríguez, mediator of the Banco de la República Museums and Collections