#Felix Gonzalez Torres

[10000thb]

[chandlermead]

Forbidden Colors, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, 1988, acrylic on panel, 20 x 68 inches, four parts: 20 x 16 inches each

[zegalba]

Felix Gonzalez-Torres: "Untitled" (Key West), 1992

[shihlun]

Félix Gonzalez-Torres

- Forbidden Colors

1988

[iheartvelma]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Flint Del Sol (@justflintisfine)

How the National Portrait Gallery fumbled the exhibition of a queer artist’s tribute to their dead partner.

full article at Out:

[victusinveritas]

(taken from Facebook)

"This piece of art is in the Smithsonian. They have removed the references to AIDS as Gonzalez-Torres’ inspiration and turned the dwindling pile representing the diminution and death of his lover into a candy trail.

This is unconscionable. However, it goes deeper than that.

In 2017, control of Gonzalez-Torres’ artistic estate passed to David Zwirner and Andrea Rosen Gallery. They began to immediately distance the artist’s legacy from AIDS and gayness, preferring instead to make him and the defining agony of his life about the complexity of art and its relationship to the viewer.

This is because art associated with white, straight artists is greatly preferred at the upper end of art acquisitions, where they want art whose price won’t be affected by, say, a sudden massive political swing against acceptance of queer artists by the wealthiest caste of human parasitoids, as happened last week.

So, Gonzalez-Torres’ art has grown only more powerful. Now it stands not only for his own grief, but for the exploitation, extortion, and distortion of artists by their wealthy curators, the way that capital defangs all art and crushes its meaning down to a simple and saleable product, a pokemon card for billionaires made of human tears and candy.

Sometimes there’s no way to satirize an industry that is more effective than simply describing what they eagerly choose to do.

Rest well, Felix and Ross." (End from Facebook)

One of the most moving pieces of art you will ever see has been reduced to a pile of candy.

[milksockets]

'untitled (go-go dancing platform)' by felix gonzalez-torres, 1991 in neohoodoo: art for a forgotten faith - franklin sirmans (2008)

[the-goya-jerker]

portrait of ross in la?

Oh, I do not feel comfortable rating this one or searching for any eroticism in it.

This is a piece of art inspired by the death of Ross Laycock, the lover of artist Felix Gonzalez Torres, during the AIDS crisis.

Ideally this piece is 175lbs of candy (corresponding to an average body weight of an adult man). Throughout the day, pieces are taken and taken. Like Ross, it wastes away, and viewers are left with the anticipation of loss.

This piece genuinely makes me feel like my heart has been ripped from my chest. I want to wail with grief when I think about it too long.

Instead of a review, I humbly offer up, for your elucidation and viewing pleasure, relevant works.

Check out the others works of Felix Gonzalez Torres, they're very moving.

Electric Fan (Feel It Motherfuckers): Only Unclaimed Item from the Stephen Earabino Estate by John S. Boskovich, a thematically similar piece of art. It also brings me to tears when I see it.

Let the Record Show by Sarah Schulman, which is based on...

The ACT UP Oral History Project, a project that seeks to preserve the history of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power and their activism through the AIDS Crisis.

United in Anger a film by Jim Hubbard, a documentary on ACT UP

If plays or films are more your style, I recommend Angels in America by Tony Kushner. My favorite version is the 2003 TV series from HBO. It stars Justin Kirk, and it is genuinely uplifting and gut wrenching all at once.

If anyone else has pieces of art they suggest, please, feel free to reblog with them! I think art is one of the best ways sometimes to engage with historical atrocities like this. Whether that art is fictionalized or factual, it connects us like nothing else.

Let yourself learn about this and let yourself feel things about this.

[agnel]

“Untitled” (Perfect Lovers)

Félix González-Torres (1987-1990)

Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

-

Félix González-Torres and Ross Laycock

Gordon Kurtti

[alexlipscomb]

queer art book, 2023, digital

[woundgallery]

C.D Wright

and

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Untitled (Ross and Harry), C-print jigsaw puzzle in plastic bag;

[gregdotorg]

chiming in on 20k, 40k reblogpiles about Duchamp's Fountain LOL and Felix Gonzalez-Torres AIDS Memorial Candy Pile Queer Erasure, even with facts, context, and first-hand research or reporting, and seeing the thread just flow on unperturbed, I finally feel like I'm experiencing the essence of tumblr discourse, and it is f'ing stupid and a drain on emotion and attention. so thanks everyone for letting me be a part of this.

[glitchphotography]

"Felix and Ana" (Deluxe Paint IV / 2023)

// An addendum to "Art Week," this booth is a tribute to two Cuban-American conceptual artists whose lives were tragically cut short: Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Ana Mendieta. Their works are profound meditations on loss, corporality, and power; they remain relevant to this day. Works by Felix Gonzalez-Torres: “Untitled” (Perfect Lovers), 1987–90; “Untitled” (Portrait of Ross in L.A.), 1991; and "Forbidden Colors," 1988.

Works by Ana Mendieta: Silueta Series, 1974; Body Tracks (Rastros Corporales), 1982 //

[cousingregs]

felix gonzalez-torres’ billboard series (1991)

[fixy8ed4xys]

Felix Gonzales-Torres 1957-1996 gay artist and AIDS activist

1-internet photo 2-my photo of students viewing "Untitled" (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) at the Institute of Art in Chicago 3-description of work 4&5-my photo of "Untitled"(March 5th)#2 at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City 6-description of work

[mcbiteypantspresents]

This is deeply upsetting.

As an artist the reality is that once you put a piece in front of an audience it no longer belongs to you… the viewer brings their own baggage and your piece becomes what it means to them, not just what you intended.

BUT that’s VERY different from a gallery or representative purposefully obfuscating the artist’s intent. Yes, a piece becomes a new thing when it’s consumed vs when it’s created, but this is shameful erasure that destroys the natural conversation between the artist and viewer, to say nothing of the inherent homophobia.

The Smithsonian's queer erasure of an AIDS artwork should alarm us all