Beatriz González (b. 1938) is a Colombian artist based in Bogotá. Her career spans six decades, from the early 1960s to today, and includes paintings, drawings, silkscreen prints, and curtains, as well as three-dimensional paintings on recycled furniture or everyday objects. González, who calls herself a “provincial artist,” appropriates and reinterprets images from the mass media and notable notorious European classic artworks; therefore, she has often been associated with the Pop Art movement, a position that she ostensibly rejects. Her work, in fact, does not deal with consumer culture itself; instead, it makes a chronicle of Colombia’s recent history. Indeed, it implies an investigation of middle-class taste in Latin America with regard to European artworks and exposes the uneven relationship between her country and the mainstream of the hegemonic centers (Europe and the United States), which is an undeniable legacy of colonialism. Beyond her expansive oeuvre, González has worked as a curator and museum education, in addition to art writing. [To read some examples of her critical writing on her own work, see documents numbers (1078663) and (1093273); in reference to other artists see documents (860646), and (1098901)].
In this interview with Ana María Cano, González explains that she took refuge in painting from an early age because it allowed her to express herself without intermediaries. She also talks about her rebellious nature and a will to shock people with her work in order to avoid easy classifications of her production. Asked about art education, González talks about the importance of the art history classes she took with art critic Marta Traba at the Universidad de los Andes [University of the Andes]; however, she also emphasizes the importance of looking for information and inspiration in other disciplines such as metaphysics and math. Cano asks González what the new local generation of artists lacks and what, on the other hand, her generation had. The artist answers that her generation had self-criticism, but lacked information about the international art world; for example, critics have talked about Andy Warhol’s influence on her work when she was not aware of his production at all. The new generation of artists, she claims, lacks both external and internal criticism, so that they are also subjected to the requests and influences of the art market, paying more attention to primary financial value than to potential artistic value.
The importance of self-criticism for artists is also discussed in Marta Traba’s review of González’s solo exhibition at the Museo de Arte Moderno of Bogotá, ¡Claro que hay jóvens con talento! [Of Course There Are Talented Young Artists] (doc. no.1342966), in which Traba stresses the importance for artists to be harshly critical of their work in order to test their commitment and creativity and, at the same time, to improve results.
