Beatriz González: Retrospective 1965–2017

On November 23, the CAPC Musée d'art Contemporain in Bordeaux inaugurated the exhibition titled "Beatriz González: Retrospective, 1965–2017" curated by María Inés Rodríguez. Open until February 25 of 2018, this important traveling retrospective by the Colombian artist (Bucaramanga, 1938) will be shown in Bordeaux, Madrid (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía), and Berlin (KW Institute for Contemporary Art). Regarded as an event of national significance by the Ministry of Culture of France, the exhibition was backed by the French government and by Catherine Petitgas. Paintings, drawings, engravings, sculptures, and installations constitute the more than 130 works created between 1965 and 2017 included the exhibition. In her work, Beatriz González expands the boundaries of painting by relying on numerous supports. She often uses utilitarian objects to express a critical and personal perspective. Through the appropriation of Pop art, she creates images associated with history, politics, comedy, and tragedy. Her work titled Los Suicidas del Sisga (The Sisga Suicides) features the image of a couple that committed suicide in the dam of the Sisga (in the outskirts of Bogota). Before killing themselves, they commissioned a professional photographer to take their portrait so their loved ones would have something to remember them by. It is an image that González immortalized in the memory of Colombian art. Since 1964, González has been working with images appropriated from the Colombian press. As result, her work conveys the pain caused by violence and death. On the other hand, her work also reveals a recurrent interest in the representation of iconic figures from popular culture (sports, politics, and even religious leaders) and, in more recent series, from indigenous and pre-Columbian cultures. Beatriz González's work is part of the collections of museums like the MoMA, Tate Modern, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, among others.