Painted by the Colombian master Alejandro Obregón (1920–1992) in 1962, 'Violencia' confronts the trauma of 'La Violencia', the decade of civil conflict (1948–1958) that tore Colombia apart. A fallen female body — its skin, earth, and horizon line fusing into a single grey-and-ochre plane — lies stretched across the enormous canvas like a wounded national landscape. That same year the painting won the National Prize for Art, and it has since become the paradigmatic image of Colombian political modernism, held today as a permanent centrepiece of the Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá (MAMBO).

Exhibition Venue

Bogotá Museum of Modern Art

Bogotá, Colombia