Y con unos lazos me izaron (And they lifted me up with rope)

In the 1970s Sonia Gutiérrez assumed an overtly political attitude that culminated in her sudden exile from Colombia’s art scene. In her paintings and prints from the 1970s and early 1980s, while retaining her pop art aesthetic, she denounced acts of torture and persecution by depicting faceless bodies restrained by ropes and bonds of fabric. In this way her work represents a version of pop art that opposed the banality of the message, opting instead to convey social and political commentary. Y con unos lazos me izaron was inspired by the case of Dr. Olga López, who was unjustly arrested with her five-year-old daughter and was kept blindfolded and tied up and brutally tortured for two weeks. López described her treatment, saying, “They wrapped my wrists in fabric, and they lifted me up with rope.” Gutiérrez used López’s description to title this painting.