Awareness Post: Félix González-Torres
- elenagloy
- Feb 29, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 22, 2024
After learning the context of this piece, seeing it makes me want to cry.
The artist I chose to research is Félix González-Torres, a Cuban-born American visual artist, most famous for the piece "Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.)". While at first glance the piece, created in 1991, appears to be simply a pile of candy (and something people my dad's age would scoff at), it's actually a memorial. The allegorical artwork consists of a pile of colorful, individually wrapped candies, which viewers are invited to take a piece of to suck on, to keep, to share. This of course risks the loss of the installation entirely, but the instructions are to constantly replenish the candy every night, keeping it at 175lbs. 175lbs, which was the ideal weight of Gonzalez-Torres' life long partner, Ross, before he was diagnosed with AIDS.
The tangible candies represent the body of Ross who passed from AIDS-related
complications in 1991, the same year the piece debuted. The act of taking and diminishing
parallels how the disease unforgivingly depleted his body. However, by refilling the candy pile every day, the memory of Ross's life and love forever remains.
Félix González-Torres was part of the group known as the "Pictures Generation," a movement of artists in the late 20th century who embraced conceptual art and appropriated imagery from mass media. González-Torres, however, brought a unique personal and emotional dimension to his work. His pieces often explore themes of love, illness, and identity, drawing from his experiences as a gay man living through the AIDS crisis.
Sadly, Félix González-Torres himself succumbed to complications from AIDS in 1996, further underscoring the deep personal connection between the artist's life and his art. "Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.)" remains a powerful and emotional testament to love, loss, and the impact of the AIDS epidemic, continuing to resonate with viewers and art enthusiasts around the world.
You can find the piece at the Art Institute of Chicago, Contemporary Art, Gallery 293.
Learn more about Félix González-Torres:
Comments