Zócalo de la tragedia

Beatriz González

1983

A large linocut in which Beatriz González transforms a press photograph into a simplified, hand-carved image to confront how mass media stages political tragedy.

You're first struck by the flattened field of deep maroon and white and the cropped, tilted suited figure—closed eyes and clipped hands rendered with bold outlines that feel at once intimate and anonymizing against the print’s graphic borders.

By turning news photographs into accessible, handmade prints, González exposed and criticized the spectacle of violence in Colombian public life and helped define a vernacular modernism that mixed popular imagery with political engagement.

Palette

Art Terms

Linoleum cut Print Edition Appropriation Figurative Popular culture Contemporary art

Exhibitions

Committed to Print

1988

New Acquisitions: Latin-American Art

1942

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

1967

Spanish and U.S. Government Posters

1937