Zócalo de la tragedia

Beatriz González

1983

A large linocut that transforms a cropped, suit‑clad figure from press imagery into a stark, emblematic scene, part of a six‑print series where the artist turns news photographs into public memory.

You notice at once the flat planes of maroon against creamy paper, the tight cropping and thin white lines that fragment the body like a grid, making a familiar, slumped pose feel monumental and unsettling.

González used the language of popular print and reportage to make images that comment on mourning and political life, helping to shift Latin American art toward a critical, civic appropriation of mass‑media visuals.

Palette

Art Terms

Linoleum cut Print Relief print Appropriation Multiple Contemporary art Figure/ground relationship

Exhibitions

Committed to Print

1988

Latin-American Art, 1931–1966, from the Museum Collection

1967

New Acquisitions: Latin-American Art

1942

Spanish and U.S. Government Posters

1937