Beatriz González on Pop, Violence, and the Gift of Art

Beatriz González, one of Colombia's most influential living artists (1932–2026), is the subject of a new interview as her first UK retrospective opens at the Barbican, London, from 25 February through 10 May. In the conversation, originally published in ArtReview's January & February 2016 issue, González discusses her early influences—Picasso, Degas, Juan Antonio Roda, and Fernando Botero—and her path to becoming an artist, which included studying metaphysics alongside fine art at Universidad de Los Andes. She rejects the label 'Pop artist', despite her use of mass-media imagery, and clarifies that her work is not political per se but driven by a critique of power and an ethical commitment. Her project 'Auras Anónimas' (2009), which stencilled 8,957 silhouettes of violence victims onto a disused crypt, was conceived as a 'counter-monument' and has become a symbol of memory for victims of over 50 years of conflict. González distinguishes photography's ephemerality from painting's endurance, and notes that her work has evolved from early furniture pieces to observations of ruling classes and responses to events like the 1985 Palace of Justice siege. She credits critic Marta Traba as a key supporter and teacher, and acknowledges that globalisation makes national borders in art obsolete. The interview also touches on her theory of 'the transformations that the work of art endures in underdeveloped countries', presented at the 1978 Venice Biennale.