Beatriz González
I went along on the basis I try to go to all major exhibitions and wasn't really sure what Gonzalez did but I was entranced.
Starting on the upper floor the show looked at how she started off in art and how from early on she based her painting on found images but using bright colours. I loved an early set of paintings based on Vermeer's which deconstructed the images into shapes and colour. She also commented on contemporary events from the papers including this set on a couple who had committed suicide and some strange ones of the British royal family.
On the lower floor they used the large space to feature her work painting furniture with Old Master images and my favourite piece was this dressing table with a Raphael. I want it! There was also a large version of Manet's "Le Dejeuner Sur L'Herbe" which stretched from the floor to the balcony above.
Her work got darker as she engaged with Columbia politics and I was moved by a work from 2003 where she found that a cemetery had fallen into disrepair with empty vaults so she produced 8956 screenprints to cover the holes.
I was also moved to see find out when I looked her up that she had died in January of this year. With this in mind it was lovely that each commentary board had a quote from her, so you heard he voice in the show. My favourite was "My art recounts things that historians don't see or cannot uncover."
Closes 10 May 2026
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