The Politics of Taste

“Ana María Reyes tackles an important but understudied subject that is absolutely essential to understanding contemporary Colombian politics, culture, and society: the relationship between aesthetics and the Cold War in Colombia. Her analysis of Beatriz González's artistic practices, Marta Traba's art criticism, the institutions where they worked and exhibited, and Colombia's cultural politics and Cold War policies during the National Front period is brilliant and compelling.” - Mary Roldán, author of Blood and Fire: La Violencia in Antioquia, Colombia, 1946–1953

“In this exciting and enlightening book, Ana María Reyes provides an entirely new perspective on the art of Beatriz González, on Latin American engagements with pop, and on Marta Traba's assessment of González's work. By offering a clear sense of the cultural dynamics of the Cold War in Colombia and class politics within Bogota during this period, Reyes allows readers to better appreciate González's subject matter, style, color sensibility, and use of appropriation.” - Mary Coffey, author of Orozco’s American Epic: Myth, History, and the Melancholy of Race

“Rich, multivalent context as means to weighing Colombian Beatriz González’s early artistic production (1964–70) is exactly what this assistant professor of Latin American art at Boston University offers readers with her monograph The Politics of Taste. The author’s analysis is buttressed by field research including access to the artist’s personal archive, twelve hours of personal interviews with her, and archival work in Medellín, Colombia…. Reyes’s skillfully crafted text is the first single-author monograph on the artist in English.” - Teresa Eckmann, Art Journal

"Reyes’s study is rich in information, illustrations, and ideas. . . . This book is authoritative, rigorous, and consistently insightful." - Luis Rebaza-Soraluz, E.I.A.L.