Felix Gonzalez-Torres Survey In Madrid Explores Art And Loss

(MENAFN- USA Art News) The Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid is hosting“Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Sweet Revenge,” a major survey of the artist's work, on view through October 12. The exhibition's title references a 1991 reflection by Gonzalez-Torres, who wrote:“...I returned to Madrid almost 20 years later, sweet revenge.”

Gonzalez-Torres arrived in Madrid in 1971 at the age of 13, sent from Cuba by his parents who remained there. He was among many children relocated from Cuba to Spain, which was then under Francisco Franco's authoritarian rule. Madrid served as a temporary stop before he moved to Puerto Rico and then New York, where he began his artistic career. His time in Spain did not seem to foster happy memories, as evidenced by his 1988 Puzzle work,“Untitled” (Madrid 1971), which combines a childhood mugshot with an image of a public statue featuring a rifle.

The exhibition opens with“Untitled” (Revenge), a candy piece created for the 1991 Madrid exhibition. This work consists of 325lb of blue candies in clear wrappers. While candy pieces are often presented in piles, this installation features them in a rectangular carpet format. Gonzalez-Torres noted that these works were always changing, and can also be installed in any way you want. Viewers are invited to take a candy.

The meaning of revenge in the title remains ambiguous. It could signify his return to a place of authoritarian power as an emerging artist, or perhaps a revisiting of a city where he once felt dislocated, now with his partner, Ross Laycock. Like all of his pieces, the candy works invite diverse interpretations, ranging from overtly political statements to deeply lyrical expressions. Many relate to Laycock, such as“Untitled” (Ross) (1991) and“Untitled” (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) (1991). Despite their flexible installation, the ideal weight of these works, such as the 325lb for“Untitled” (Revenge), which is approximately 147kg or the average weight of two men, remained constant, reflecting his thoughts on the physical body.

The title also carries a sense of sadness and bitter irony. Gonzalez-Torres's candy pieces and related paper stacks, known as his manifestable works, are imbued with themes of loss. When“Untitled” (Revenge) was first shown in Madrid in 1991, Laycock was in the advanced stages of an AIDS-related illness, dying on January 24, 1991, two days after the exhibition opened. More than two years later, Gonzalez-Torres described the manifestables to artist Tim Rollins as a form of letting go, explaining that creating ephemeral, fragile works was an attempt on my part to rehearse my fears of having Ross disappear day by day right in front of my eyes.

Despite the tragic context, the works are also generous to the audience. Gonzalez-Torres stated, I need the viewer, I need the public interaction. Without a public these works are nothing, nothing. He also believed in art's transformative power through interaction. In 1990, while confronting what he called the private disaster of Ross's imminent death in Los Angeles, he and Laycock saw Roni Horn's Gold Field (1980-82). Gonzalez-Torres described it as nothing more than a thin layer of gold, a new landscape, a possible horizon, a place of rest and absolute beauty. He added, It is everything a good poem by Wallace Stevens is: precise, with no baggage, nothing extra.

This description captures the essence of why his own work is highly regarded by 21st-century artists and remains deeply relevant 30 years after his death from AIDS. He masterfully condensed complex personal and societal issues into gestures of profound economy and poetry. Reflecting on their experience with Gold Field, Gonzalez-Torres wrote, Ross and I were lifted, concluding with what could be his epitaph: This showed the innate ability of an artist proposing to make this place a better place. How truly revolutionary.

Source: The Art Newspaper

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