The book by Beatriz Gonzálezentitled Roberto Páramo: Pintor de la Sabana, published in 1987, contains four brief texts: (i) “Roberto Páramo y la pintura de paisaje en Colombia”, (ii) “Roberto Páramo y la Sabana de Bogotá”, (iii) “Roberto Páramo, la miniatura y el dibujo” and (iv) “Roberto Páramo, una vida ejemplar.” In the first, González—a renowned artist and historian—argues that Roberto Páramo is one of the precursors of Modernism in Colombia. She bases her claim on certain features of his work such as the absence of “a practical aim.” Páramo’s art also displays a “free attitude” and independence from the art market characteristic of an anti-academic subjectivity. González goes on to distinguish between 19th-century landscape artists, on the one hand, and Páramo and his contemporaries, on the other. In keeping with German philosopher Joachim Ritter, the latter approach nature from a place of “sensitive contemplation with no useful purpose.” With these artists, and for the first time in the history of Colombian art, the utilitarian nature of landscape painting was relegated as both artist and artistic language became autonomous in true Modern fashion. In the next three texts, González discusses Páramo’s preferred themes and techniques, and provides a brief biographical sketch of the artist.

In “Roberto Páramo y la pintura de paisaje en Colombia” (published in the book Roberto Páramo: Pintor de la Sabana), artist and art historian Beatriz González (b. 1938) offers one of the most interesting historiographical works produced in the eighties. On the basis of the thinking of German philosopher Joachim Ritter (1903−74), she discusses artist Roberto Páramo (1859–1939) as a precursor of Modernism in Colombia.

González expands on the research that Marta Traba performed from 1968 to 1974, when she published the book Historia abierta del arte colombiano (Cali: Museo La Tertulia, 1974), which argues that Andrés de Santa María (1860–1945) was the first solidly Modern artist in Colombia.

Other researchers active in the seventies and eighties did similar work in defense of figures crucial to Modernism in Colombia. In the book Procesos del arte en Colombia (Bogotá: Colcultura, 1978), art historian Álvaro Medina discusses Fídolo Alfonso González Camargo (1883−1941) and other artists from the first quarter of the 20th century who were central to the Modernism that Andrés de Santa María had introduced to Colombia.

Thus, when Beatriz González published the book Roberto Páramo: Pintor de la Sabana—which features the text “Roberto Páramo y la pintura de paisaje en Colombia”—she established Páramo, alongside Santa María and González Camargo, as a third figure crucial to ushering in Colombian Modernism. Her arguments, specifically in “Roberto Páramo y la pintura de paisaje en Colombia,” made way for a re-positioning of Páramo on the cartography of Colombian Modernism.

Also pertinent to the project of recognizing certain artists as “precursors” of Modernism in Colombia are the books by art critic Eduardo Serrano (b. 1939) entitled Roberto Páramo: paisaje, bodegón, ciudad (Bogotá: Museo de Arte Moderno), published in 1989, and La Escuela de la Sabana (Bogotá: Museo de Arte Moderno), published in 1990. Serrano uses the term in the title of that second book (The Savanna School) to refer to Colombian landscape artists from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The impact of Beatriz González’s work from 1987, which was furthered by Eduardo Serrano two years later, was considerable. It was responsible for: (i) the decision, in June 1989, of the Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango of the Banco de la República to purchase the first works by Roberto Páramo for what was called its “Permanent Collection” (now called the Banco de la República’s Art Collection); (ii) the improved position of Páramo’s work on the local art market; (iii) the furthering of a curatorial discourse evident in the permanent collections of Colombian museums, a discourse that envisions the figures of Santa María, González Camargo, and Páramo as a triad at the forefront of Modern art in Colombia (examples include the collections of the Museo Nacional of Colombia and of the Banco de la República); and (iv) the revalorization of a period little studied by local art history, one that goes from 1886 (the year the Escuela de Bellas Artes of Bogotá was founded) to 1922 (the year the first exhibition of French art was held in the country).