The Bittersweet Art of Felix Gonzalez-Torres

August 17, 2021 12:12 PM

"Untitled" (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) by Felix Gonzalez-Torres - National Portrait Gallery video: "In this 'portrait' of his deceased partner, Ross Laycock, Gonzalez-Torres created a spill of candies that approximated Ross's weight (175 lbs.) when he was healthy. Viewers are invited to take away a candy until the mound gradually disappears; it is then replenished, and the cycle of life and death continues." More candy works by the artist.
posted by MonkeyToes (19 comments total)

I encountered the work recently via this thoughtful post. Amazing how a piece of art can go from "that's so dumb, my kid could, etc." to "that is one of the most devastating statements on dying I've ever seen" with just a few sentences of explanation.
posted by gwint at 12:28 PM on August 17, 2021 [7 favorites]

He has another untitled work that deals with death and loss, and it's a string of incandescent light bulbs that stay plugged in for the duration of the exhibit, eventually burning out one by one.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 12:42 PM on August 17, 2021 [8 favorites]

I saw this installation at the Art Institute of Chicago and I still have the candy I took that day. It's incredibly moving.
posted by cooker girl at 1:00 PM on August 17, 2021 [4 favorites]

I saw this in DC, back in 2010. My literal first thought on seeing it was "Ok, what is this bullshit?"

And then I read the placard. And then I took a piece of candy. And then I ate the candy, as all manner of other thoughts swirled through my head.

Encountering this piece/portrait was a profoundly moving moment that I still carry with me.
posted by avoision at 1:07 PM on August 17, 2021 [8 favorites]

I saw this piece when it was exhibited in DC as part of the Hide/Seek exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery in 2010. It may be of interest that there was a culture war over the inclusion and subsequent removal of David Wojnarowicz's video piece "Fire in My Belly," also part of the exhibit, which was interpreted by conservative politicians as anti-Christian; this was widely decried as art censorship.
posted by wicked_sassy at 1:31 PM on August 17, 2021

I saw the "Portrait of Ross" work at MOMA once, and after reading the description and story of what it was about, I found that I was really uncomfortable taking a piece of candy like I was supposed to - it felt like I was participating in killing someone. I've rarely had that visceral a reaction to a work of art.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:55 PM on August 17, 2021 [3 favorites]

I saw this installation at the Art Institute of Chicago and I still have the candy I took that day. It's incredibly moving.

How long ago was that? I saw a piece by Gonzalez-Torres at the Art Institute way back in the 90s, I think. I was a chaperone for my daughter’s class trip to Chicago. It really was very moving. I think about that piece quite often.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:16 PM on August 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

I saw this installation in San Francisco during a short trip in 2004(?) and I took a piece of candy and tried to make it last as long as I could. My friends were horrified that I had taken a piece, thinking I didn't understand the art or the point of it. I'm glad to know I'm not crazy and understood the intent of the art...
posted by panhopticon at 2:39 PM on August 17, 2021 [4 favorites]

I love Gonzalez-Torres's work because even though I haven't seen it in person I can just think about it and it is still so powerful. My favorite work of his is Perfect Lovers. One clock will always stop before the other.
posted by TurnKey at 4:39 PM on August 17, 2021 [5 favorites]

So much conceptual art is shit (literally). I admit to being a Philistine, or at least if you are trying to make me feel something profound using everyday objects, it damn well better be thought provoking and effective (affective?). An artist takes a big risk going down this path with 99+% looking like jackasses. Which makes the successes that much more powerful and delightful.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 6:20 PM on August 17, 2021

Is the candy always the same? Who makes the candy? What happens if they go out of business?

(since a clear focus of the work is the inevitability of entropy, decay and death [see the clocks of Perfect Lovers], I guess a failure to be able to replenish the candy would be [eventually] thematically apropos.)
posted by chavenet at 1:58 AM on August 18, 2021

What is the work without the explanation? This is something I ask myself a lot when I see art: it has to stand on its own (in my book) as just an aesthetic experience free of its conceptual exegesis - and Gonzalez-Torres' work has always done that for me. I don't remember the first time I saw this piece but I remember the second time I saw it, and how there was markedly less. Also, not to be a jerk, but the way the people took the candy - (rich white people for the most part) swooping in like swallows, snagging a piece or two and then flitting off. None staying there, contemplating the pile - just grab and go. That impressed me.

(It also made me think of Gober's Donuts which are an entirely different thing (and the slighter for it). Also on the topic of eating in galleries and worth reading about/ digging into is Rirkrit Tiravanija.)
posted by From Bklyn at 3:50 AM on August 18, 2021 [2 favorites]

How long ago was that? I saw a piece by Gonzalez-Torres at the Art Institute way back in the 90s, I think. I was a chaperone for my daughter’s class trip to Chicago. It really was very moving. I think about that piece quite often.

I think it's there pretty much permanently--I've seen it many times in the early 2000s (apparently I went to the Art Institute quite a bit in high school, which I guess is an argument for museums being pay-what-you-want--I grew up and moved away, but I've been maybe once since they made admission fixed).
posted by hoyland at 5:05 AM on August 18, 2021

What is the work without the explanation? This is something I ask myself a lot when I see art: it has to stand on its own (in my book) as just an aesthetic experience free of its conceptual exegesis

I usually see it the opposite way, especially with conceptual art. Anyone can just tape a banana to a wall, but the story of someone taping a banana to the wall and someone else coming along and eating it is what I find compelling in art.

I don't think I would have had the same reaction to the pile of candy if I didn't know the backstory. Now it makes me think of the Canada Mints my dad ordered online shortly before he passed away and how it took me months to figure out what to do with them. Should I eat them? Should I toss them? Should I just stuff them away someplace to rediscover later?
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:26 AM on August 18, 2021 [2 favorites]

Jonathan Katz does a great lecture on the influence AIDS had on art (video here). It contextualizes conceptual art about gay life and the AIDS crisis. It's a little dry and academic, but I highly recommend it. Definitely changed the way I think about a lot of 80's conceptual art.
posted by Drab_Parts at 7:08 AM on August 18, 2021 [1 favorite]

How long ago was that?

2012 or maybe 2013. It's been part of the permanent collection since 2012.
posted by cooker girl at 7:09 AM on August 18, 2021

T. Fleischmann's Time Is The Thing A Body Moves Through is a meditation on (in the middle of other things—desire, trans embodiment, travel) the work of Gonzalez-Torres.
posted by a Rrose by any other name at 7:52 AM on August 18, 2021 [1 favorite]

He was a master. He could do so much with so little.
posted by Sreiny at 11:56 AM on August 18, 2021

My friend got in an argument with a docent in Chicago about him being able to take a piece of candy. He's the one who introduced me to Gonzales-Torres's work.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 8:13 AM on August 19, 2021 [2 favorites]