This text is particularly interesting as it presents the first solo exhibition of Colombian artist Beatriz Daza (1928−1968). In it, Marta Traba (1923−1983)—an Argentinean art critic who lived in Colombia—formulates ideas that contrast with the works most identified with this artist. Indeed, the divergence between critical discourse and the early works by artists that would gain widespread recognition in the sixties was somewhat common in Colombia in the late fifties.
Daza’s experimental work in the ceramics medium defied the established limits of the time in that discipline. Her melting pots, plaques, and assemblages were not easy to categorize as ceramics, paintings or sculptures, and thus questioned the formalist discourses and definitions operative in the Colombian milieu in the fifties.
Due to the brevity of Daza’s career, this is one of the few existing written critiques of her work. Her art was displayed in public for the first time in 1959 at the Salón de pintoras de la Universidad de América. Soon thereafter, the first solo exhibition of her work was held. There would be a total of four solo and sixteen group shows during the nine years she was an active artist, until she died in a car accident in 1968, after having been a member of the jury at the VII Salón de Cerámica. The few writings that do exist on Daza and her work are collected in the book Beatriz Daza: hace mucho tiempo (Bogota: Fundación Gilberto Alzate Avendaño, 2008).