Sonia Gutiérrez

Sonia Gutiérrez (born 1947 in Cúcuta, Colombia) is an artist specializing in drawings, oil paintings, and print making. Her artwork is known for focusing on issues and events occurring in Colombia, particularly as a response to the political climate during the 1970s in Colombia.

For the educator, see Sonia Gutierrez.

Education

Gutiérrez attended the School of Fine Arts at the National University of Colombia.

Colombia

Colombia was governed as a dictatorship from the 1940s to the 1970s; during this time there was a lot of violence occurring with conflicts between assassinations and fraud during elections. There was massive drug trafficking of cocaine to the United States from Colombia. Junto con estos motivos, tambien estaba la acelerada situacíon de violencia entre el ejército, la guerilla y grupos paramilitares. Despues que se generó la guerra interna empesaron las desapareciones, secuestros, homicidios, y masacres de la gente en la comunidad.[1] Her political turmoil with Colombia led to her exile and to this day, violence continues.

Artwork

Pintura Pop

Presentada en la primera Bienal de Coltejer en Medellín en 1967 con la que ganó segunda mención de honor. This artwork shows two faceless females wearing colorful outfits; one wears an orange yellow, and brown dress, and the other wears a light blues skirt with dark blue fringe and a different blue shirt with brown stripes. There is also a fancy chair in the color mustard yellow with a matching rug.

We’ll Keep Saying Homeland (1972)

Medium = acrylic on canvas/painting
Objective: A painting that shows how people are complacent in their affection for the nation, even after being treated bad in their home country, the title of the art work shows loyalty and love for it.
Description: This artwork shows both a male and a female with their backs turned to us making them faceless. They both are bound with rope around their ankles and hung upside down. Evidence of the torture that the citizens were enduring those times.

Cimitarra: Vivo o muerto al aeropuerto (Cimitarra: Live or dead at the airport) (1976)

Medium = Linocut
A black-and-white painting that is showcased amongst other two similar paintings, Mas allá del estado de sitio, and Operación rastrillo. This painting shows two feet and one hand, you can see that there is rope around at least one ankle but it is in between toes on both feet and it appears that the person's hand might be bound as well.

Mas allá del estado de sitio (Beyond the state of siege) (1976)

Medium = Linocut
This is a black-and-white painting that shows two feet facing up with rope around the toes. You can see that the rope is tied around another object as to show how the person was bound to something.

Operación rastrillo (Search operation) (1976)

Medium = Linocut
Description: Black-and-white that also looks like other pieces of art of Sonia's. You only see disembodied feet with the big toes wrapped around the rope, against a woven background. Unlike her other pieces, We’ll Keep Saying Homeland and And they lifted me up with a rope , it's not visible whether the person painted is hung or if they have fallen.

Magdalena Medio (1977)

Medium = Acrylic on canvas/painting
Description: una insólita imagen de una mujer suspendida horizontalmente de una gruesa cuerda y amarra con firmes nudos su pierna derecha y las manos a su respaldo. Está de espaldas hacia nosotros, su cabeza cuelga de su cuello, su pierna izquierda se tuerce en el aire, lleva sus pies descalzos, una sencilla blusa blanca y una falda marrón que cuelga de la cadera.[1]

And they lifted me up with a rope (1979)

Medium = Acrylic on canvas/painting
Objective: Paint the story of a female Doctor who was captured and tortured by the government, bound with some rope. She uses the visual language of pop to describe what was happening in her country. Description: Faceless woman in a purple dress, hung upside down and bound by rope from her ankles and wrist.
Influences: The pop art aspect of her paintings are as a response to moving away from abstract, non-objective art, that became popular in New York City with artist like Andy Warhol.

Others

Dos cajoncitos de dos en dos, alzan la pata y dicen adios (Two Little Boxes Two By Two, Lift Their Leg and Say Adieu) (1967)

Career and exhibitions

Gutiérrez held her first group exhibition in 1962, before going to study in France. In the following years, she had solo exhibitions in multiple locations including, Bogotá, Cucuta, Medellin, Bucaramanga, where she displayed several works such as, Los que son (1968). Gutiérrez's work was influenced by Pop Art and focuses on the political struggles of Colombia, as seen in her 1972 painting Seguiremos diciendo patria', which portrays a man and a woman being hung upside down by their ankles, with their backs turned to the viewer. In addition, her paintings were a representation of the violence during the time between the people and the dictatorship. In 1977, she created the painting Y con unos lazos me izaron (And they lifted me up with rope), which she based on the case of Dr. Olga López who, along with her five-year-old daughter, was arrested unjustly and tortured by Columbian police officers for two years. The name comes from López's testimony, where she stated that she was tied up with rope and lifted, and per Politika's Silvia Arana, is meant to represent men and women who were victimized or murdered by the State of Colombia.[2] Gutiérrez does not show the faces of the people she paints but instead discloses their name and situation.[2]

In 2017, Gutiérrez displayed Y con unos lazos me izaron in the exhibition "Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960–1985" at the Hammer Museum, where the themes were resistance and fear.[3]

Sara Solaimani wrote a review on the art exhibitions in the Hammer Museum and described how the different creations of arts, photography, moving elements, drawings, sculptures, etc. Gutiérrez art work was displayed. Solaimani writes, the concept of "Radical Women is a dynamic experience that draws the viewer into their bodies, movements, feelings, and thoughts".[4] In addition to the different art exhibitions displayed, the overall take of Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960–1985 brought up the topic of intersectionality, history, and women's rights. The theme of the art exhibition at the Hammer Museum was resistance and fear and the artwork of Gutiérrez that was used was that of a faceless women hung upside down, "Y con unos lazos me izaron".

Finalizando los años sesenta, Sonia Gutiérrez se dio a conocer como artista con su primera exposición individual en 1967 en la Biblioteca Nacional.[1] In Latin American, the selected exhibitions that Gutiérrez was part of were: 1967 19th Sala Gregorio Vásquez, Biblioteca Nacional, Bogotá, 1967 Salón de Artistas Nacionales, Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango, Bogotá, 1968 Bienal Iberoamericana de Pintura Coltejer, Medellín, Colombia, 1968 1st Bienal de Artes Plásticas, Lima, and 1991 Astistas santandereanos en la década del 1960 Museo de Arte Moderno de Bucaramanga, Colombia.[5] Other exhibitions of Sonia Gutiérrez's art have been shown in La Capitale Galerie, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, and in the Hammer Museum. When Continents Meet N2, La Capitale Galerie from July 3, 2018 – July 28, 2018 showed other artists like Fernando Pomalaza, Karen Kunc, Godwin Bradbeer, and Nicol Rodriguez. Radical Women Latin American Art, 1960–1985 Brooklyn Museum of Art from April 13, 2018– July 22, 2018 showed art pieces of over 100 artist, and Radical Women Latin American Art, 1960–1985 in the Hammer Museum from September 15, 2017 – December 31, 2017 which showed art of 25 artist.

Style and artworks

Gutiérrez used patterns, textures, and vivid colors to give a sense of pop aesthetic. She, unlike many other artist, transitioned from 'abstraction' and in the 1960s she created new work around the "go-go" period, yet during the 1970s she started creating art around Colombian politics. Following, the "go-go" period disappeared and is not very well known outside of Latin America. In the political scene, some of her famous images explore the political violence in Colombia that influenced Gutiérrez to explore the violence that was occurring. She paints ropes and fabric on individuals to the violence that many had to endure during that time.

Sonia Gutierrez artwork is the "Y con unos Lazos me izaron (And they lifted me up with a rope) it was created in 1977 with the medium being acrylic on canvas. The Collection of La Tertulia Museum, Cali, Colombia have the rights and the original source is from La Tertulia Museum, Cali, Colombia.

Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the United Kingdom and the United States during the mid-to-late 1950s. The movement presented a challenge to traditions of fine art by including imagery from popular and mass culture, such as advertising, comic books and mundane cultural objects. Artists that were known for creating Pop Art include, American artist Andy Warhol with one of his known paintings being the Campbell's Soup Cans in 1962 and Shot Marilyns 1964.[6] The pop art aesthetic that became Gutierrez signature stylelead an art critic, Gloria Valencia Diago to label her he go-go de pies a cabeza" (go-go from head to toe)[5] Valencia Diago, escribe, que Sonia fue ecolucionando como artista y se movío del abstractionismo al academismo con un sentido de espontaneidad que ase que su arte sea mas interesante y atraé a las personas.[7]

Gutiérrez, while continuing to retain her pop art aesthetic, began to create art that was more political and that in a sense would open communication about the violence that was happening in Colombia. She shifted her artistic pop art career to a more political one in the 1970s, two of her political art pieces, that are popular are titled, "Y siguiremos diciendo patria" (And we'll continue to say") and "Y con unos lazos me izaron". In these pieces, she painted the violence that was occurring, with men and women tied up in ropes, hung upside down.[5]

Distinctions and honors

Gutiérrez received several distinctions and honors during the 1960s: Premio Pintura at the 3rd Salón 10 de mayo (1965), Primer Premio Dibujo at the 10th Salón Cano (1966), honors at the 1st Bienal Iberoamericana de Pintura Coltejer in Medellin (1968) with her painting Pintura Pop (1968,[5] Fourth Prize that Gutiérrez won at the III Salón Nacional de Pintura [Third National Painting Salon] that was organized by Croydon, a private company, in 1967.

References
Footnotes
  1. Gómez Echeverri, Nicolás. “Colombia y El Arte Pop.” Una Familia | Colección De Arte Del Banco De La República, www.banrepcultural.org/warhol/colombia/gutierrez.html.
  2. Arana, Silvia (2018-09-04). "Mujeres radicales en el arte latinoamericano, 1960-1985. Cartografías del cuerpo: feminismo, identidad y justicia social". POLITIKA (in Spanish). Retrieved 2019-02-28.
  3. Solaimani, Sara (2018). "Review". Journal of Asia-Pacific Pop Culture. 3 (1): 153–162. doi:10.5325/jasiapacipopcult.3.1.0153. JSTOR 10.5325/jasiapacipopcult.3.1.0153.
  4. Solaimani (2018). "Review". Journal of Asia-Pacific Pop Culture. 3 (1): 153–162. doi:10.5325/jasiapacipopcult.3.1.0153. JSTOR 10.5325/jasiapacipopcult.3.1.0153.
  5. Fajardo-Hill, C., & Giunta, A. (2017). Radical women: Latin American art, 1960-1985. Munich: DelMonico.
  6. Schroeder, Jonathan E. “Andy Warhol: Consumer Researcher.” ACR Special Volumes, 1 Jan. 1997, acrwebsite.org/volumes/8089/volumes/v24/NA-24.
  7. Valencia Diago, Gloria. “Sonia Gutiérrez, Una Pintora Go-Go Exhale En La Sala Gregorio Vázquez.” ICAA Documents > THE ARCHIVE > Full Record, ICAA | MFAH, 13 Sept. 1967, icaadocs.mfah.org/icaadocs/THEARCHIVE/FullRecord/tabid/88/doc/1132064/language/en-US/Default.aspx.
Sources
  • Estrada, Leonel. “Arte En Colombia, 1981-2006: Tercera Bienal De Arte Coltejer, Medellin, Colombia, 1972. Medellín, Colombia: Colina, [1973].” Google Books, books.google.com/books?
  • Fajardo-Hill, Cecilia & Guerrero, Marcela. "Latina Art Through the Exhibition Lens: Radical;Sourcesl Women: Latin American Art, 1960-1985." Diálogo, vol. 20 no. 1, 2017, pp. 133–140. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/dlg.2017.0015
  • Fajardo-Hill, C. (n.d.). Modern Abstraction in Latin America. Retrieved January 3, 2019, from
  • Medina, Medófilo. “Dos décadas de crisis política colombiana, 1977-1997”, La crisis sociopolítica colombiana, un análisis no coyuntural de la coyuntura. Centro de Estudios Sociales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, 1997. p. 32
  • Medina, Álvaro. “Pedro Alcántara: plástica combativa”, Procesos del Arte en Colombia. Instituto Colombiano de Cultura, Bogotá, 1978. p. 530
  • Perez, Carlos E. “Las Bañistas”, La obra de la semana, número 57. Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Minuto de Dios, Bogotá, noviembre 8 de 2005
  • Rubiano, Germán. “Artistas ‘populares’ y ‘primitivos’”, Historia del Arte Colombiano, Salvat Ed. Tomo 7
  • Schroeder, Jonathan E. “Andy Warhol: Consumer Researcher.” ACR Special Volumes, 1 Jan. 1997, acrwebsite.org/volumes/8089/volumes/v24/NA-24
  • Traba, Marta. “El diseño Pop. Sus cuatro soluciones más destacadas: A) Beatriz González, B) Sonia Gutiérrez y Ana Mercedes Hoyos, C) Santiago Cárdenas, D) Bernardo Salcedo”, Historia abierta del arte colombiano. 2a. Ed. Bogotá, Colcultura y Museo La Tertulia, 1984.
  • Varios. Catálogo de la exposición Arte Humanidad. Comité Internacional de la Cruz Roja, 1998
  • Buitrago, Herrera; Mercedes, María (December 2012). "Marta Traba and Clemencia Lucena: two critical visions in the political art of Colombia in the 1970s". Memoria y Sociedad. 16 (33): 121–134.
  • “Y Con Unos Lazos Me Izaron (And They Lifted Me up with Rope) - Sonia Gutiérrez - Google Arts & Culture.” Google, Google, artsandculture.google.com/asset/y-con-unos-lazos-me-izaron-and-they-lifted-me-up-with-rope/kgHHgAOyABlpXQ
  • Gutiérrez at mutualart.com
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