Beatriz Gonzalez: Five Things to Know

The Colombian artist, who died aged 93 in January 2026, achieved late-career success with works transforming Old Master paintings and photojournalism into paintings and furniture with a political message.

1 - The Colombian artist Beatriz González first turned to art history for inspiration and then to tabloid newspapers as sources while using Pop art to respond to the political violence in Colombia.

2 - A major survey of her work opened in São Paulo in 2025, heads to London’s Barbican Gallery in February 2026 then on to Oslo’s Astrup Fernley Museum.

3 - Estrellita Brodsky is a fan. The collector, curator and champion of Latin American art included González's media-inspired work in the Paris Photo fair.

4 - Turning point: in the late 1970s she saw a news photo of the Colombian president’s family and decided: “I want to be like Goya, the court painter.”

5 - Top sale: her highest auction sale in the past three years was for Sueño dorado (Meditación), a 1968 painting that fetched $139,700 with fees at Sotheby's.

Image: Los papagayos (The Parrots) (1987) is among the works in her touring retrospective opening in London in February 2025. Copyright the artist. Courtesy of Pérez Art Museum Miami, gift of Jorge M. Pérez