Once upon a time there was only the Venice Biennale as a global reference point, while today there are biennials located in the four corners of the globe; up to fifty years ago we talked about the shore and the dialogue between America and Europe, while today we talk about art systems that belong to emerging countries with art fairs that have their connections (or their competitors) in the East and Africa. And those who can’t keep up with the pace are quickly sidelined.
Exterior view of the De Pont Museum, 2021, photo by Rene van der Hulst, courtesy De Pont Museum, Tilburg
Beatriz González (1932), a South American artist of Colombian origins (but not only, since she declares herself a critic, curator and art historian) is part of this extended game of relationships and of this third-world vision of contemporaneity, of which Les Magicien de la Terre represented the first testimony of a turning point within the Western system (Centre Pompidou in Paris, 1989). A vision that looks to the redemption and affirmation of values and rights that were denied in the past and that in current times become testimony of the present and redemption of the wrongs suffered. “War and Peace: a Poetics of Gesture” at the De Pont Museum offers an overview of the many decades of the impressive career of this author who well represents this new way of feeling and living the present.
Beatriz González, “Empalizada”, 2001, photo Juan Rodríguez Varón, courtesy the Artist and De Pont Museum, Tilburg
Since 1962, González has used painting as a means to reclaim and interpret existing images from Western art, pop culture and photojournalism, mixing what she found in magazines or newspapers with vernacular signs of popular culture. As a result, her work has often been described as the South American version of Pop Art, a claim that the artist has always disputed, since she prefers to define herself – with a certain amount of self-irony – as a “provincial painter” whose palette echoes the colors of her native country. In other words, the ethnic aspect and references to her socio-cultural context are not secondary elements, neither in the execution of these works, nor in the conceptual references that support them.
Beatriz González, “Decoración de interiors”, 1981, collection of the artist, Photo Andrés Pardo, courtesy the Artist and De Pont Museum, Tilburg
The beginning of her career can be traced back to 1965, when one of her works, accused of being a “failed Botero”, was rejected at the Salon of Colombian Artists. Only the intervention and determination of Marta Traba pushed the jury to look at the work in a different light and to reconsider their decision; so the painting was not only accepted, but the author was even awarded a special prize. That work and the following ones are affected by a medial process, that is, her source of inspiration is not only famous paintings from the art history, but also images taken from current events, that is, mediated by photographs published by newspapers. Something very widespread, although the levels of transformation and sedimentation are truly the most disparate: what was the absence of intervention in Duchamp, and then manipulation of the text with Visual Poetry, are radically transformed by González’s painting.
Beatriz González, “Ceremonia de la caja” (“Ceremony of the Crate”), 2010, collection De Pont museum, Tilburg (NL). Photo Eddo Hartmann; “Ríos de Sangre”, 1992. Photo Andrés Matute Echeverri, courtesy the Artist and De Pont Museum, Tilburg
Subsequently, there was no lack of more direct connections with political life. The dramatic change can be traced back to 1985 when the author was shaken by the assault of the M-19 armed formations on the Palace of Justice. The colors of her paintings became dark and opaque, the shadows seemed to have taken over and her work took on a more radical nature, starting to address issues such as death, drug trafficking, the violence of soldiers and guerrillas, the disappearances of civilians accused of subversive activities and of propagating communist ideas and (more recently) Latin American feminism and migration as a national and global phenomenon. The first major retrospective was dedicated to her by the Pérez Art Museum Miami in 2019, where one hundred and fifty works were presented. Two years earlier she had received the invitation to exhibit at documenta 14.
Beatriz González, “Papel de colgadura desplazados” (“Displaced Wallpaper”), 2017, collection De Pont museum, Tilburg (NL). Photo Eddo Hartmann, courtesy the Artist and De Pont Museum, Tilburg
In addition to the major works that document González’s career, the exhibition “War and Peace: a Poetics of Gesture” at the De Pont Museum will also feature several cycles based on news images. The artist has taken these images from media contexts and elaborated them into paintings, drawings, prints and works made for public spaces. In each of these pieces, González focuses on a single physical gesture to express empathy and mutual human understanding. The exhibition includes several works that De Pont acquired for its collection in 2021. This exhibition was created in collaboration with the MUAC in Mexico City.
Bruno Sain
Info:
Beatriz González, War and Peace: a Poetics of Gesture
from 5 October 2024
De Pont Museum
Wilhelminapark 1, Tilburg
info@depont.nl
https://depont.nl/home
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