Felix Gonzalez-Torres

American, 1958-1996.

Drawing from the traditions of Minimalism and Conceptual Art, Felix Gonzalez-Torres created installations and sculptures that function as personal and political meditations on private and public life. Often referred to as process art, Gonzalez-Torres’s work focused on ideas of formation and decay: he combined household and found objects that have the potential to change over time, while also working with more enduring materials such as puzzles, light strings, and photographs. Public interactivity was an integral part of some of his most iconic pieces, including Untitled (Placebo) (1991), an arrangement of individually wrapped candies with an ideal weight of 100-120 pounds that spectators are able to take from. Gonzalez-Torres emphasized the thematic universality of his pieces; whereas he was deeply affected by the AIDS epidemic while working, the artworks themselves have ongoing political relevance. He was heavily influenced by Conceptual artists such as Joseph Kosuth and Lawrence Weiner.