Zócalo de la tragedia
Beatriz González
Colombian, 1938–2026
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.
Medium
One from a set of six linoleum cuts
Dimensions
sheet: 39 1/2 × 27 15/16" (100.4 × 71 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Latin American and Caribbean Fund
Accession
1370.2009.6
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
