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1、Felix Gonzalez-TorresBorn 1957, Gaimaro, CubaLived and worked in New YorkDied 1996, Miami, FloridaThe art of the late Felix Gonzalez- Torres took many different forms during his relatively brief career but it was always motivated by his fervent desire for dialogue and community. His self-portrait in
2、 the form of a personal chronology is painted in two bands above eye level on the gallerys four walls. According to the artists wishes, new events or significant moments related to his life may be added to the work each time it is installed. To enter this space, viewers must walk through Untitled (W
3、ater), a beaded curtain that refers to the artists deep connection to the sea, stemming from his childhood in Cuba and his life in Miami. He invited viewers to take part in the metaphorical and literal evolution of his works meaning, and our participation grants it a kind of perpetually renewed life
4、 and relevance. Felix Gonzalez-Torres, untitled (Water), 1995, plastic beads and metal rod, installation dimensions variable (installation view)Felix Gonzalez-Torres, untitled, 1995, paint on wall, dimensions vary with installation (installation view) Felix Gonzalez-Torress first solo exhibition was
5、 presented in New York in 1984, and during the last decade his work has been included in numerous group exhibitions, including El Jardin Salvaje, Fundacin Caja de Pensiones, Madrid, The Body, Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, and Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, N
6、ew York (1991); 45th Venice Biennale (1993); About Place: Recent Art of the Americas, The Art Institute of Chicago, and Public Information: Desire, Disaster, Document, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California (1995); and NowHere, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebk, and Jurassic Technologi
7、es Revenant, the 10th Biennale of Sydney (1996). His work has also been presented in solo exhibitions at New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (1988); Brooklyn Museum, New York (1989); Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York (annually 1990-93, and 1995, 1997); Museum of Modern Art, New York (1992); Milwau
8、kee Art Museum, Wisconsin, and Museum in Progress, Vienna (1993); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, traveling to Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., and Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago (1994); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1995); Muse dArt Moder
9、ne de la Ville de Paris (1996); and Sprengel Museum Hannover, with venues at St. Gallen Kunstmuseum, Switzerland, and Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna (1997-98). Felix Gonzalez-Torres, 24 Billboards, NYC. December 4-31, 2000Creative Time, as part of its mission to present and stimulate
10、dialogue around art in the public sphere, presents 24 locations of Felix Gonzalez-Torres billboard Untitled 1995 in conjunction with an exhibition of his work at Andrea Rosen Gallery from December 2, 2000 - January 13, 2001. Along with the presentation of a Gonzalez-Torres billboard never shown befo
11、re in the United States, Creative Time has developed this site to foster understanding about the work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres. With the recommendations of the Estate of Felix Gonzalez-Torres, we have reprinted several of the most insightful documents about Gonzalez-Torres work, as well as his bio a
12、nd a brief essay by Andrea Rosen, executrix of Gonzalez-Torres estate.Education 1983 Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York, B.F.A. 1981, 1983 Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Independent Study Program 1987 International Center for Photography, New York University, M.F.A. Selected Further Read
13、ing Sprengel Museum Hannover, Germany; St. Gallen Kunstmuseum, Switzerland; and Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna. Felix Gonzalez-Torres (199798). Exhibition catalogue, texts by Roland Wspe, Andrea Rosen, Dietmar Elger, Rainer Fuchs, and David Deitcher. Catalogue raisonn by Dietmar Elger
14、.The Art Institute of Chicago. About Place: Recent Art of the Americas (1995). Exhibition catalogue, texts by Madeleine Grynsztejn and Dave Hickey. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1995). Exhibition catalogue, text by Nancy Spector. Bartman, William S., ed. Felix Gonzal
15、ez-Torres. Los Angeles: A.R.T. Press, 1993. Essay by Susan Cahan, short story by Jan Avgikos, and interview with the artist by Tim Rollins. Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California. Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1994). Exhibition catalogue, texts by Amada Cruz, Russell Ferguson, Ann Goldstein, b
16、ell hooks, Joseph Kosuth, and Charles Merewether.FELIX GONZALEZ-TORRES ETRE UN ESPIONInterview byRobert StorrThe work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres has quickly risen to a preeminent place on the international scene as one of the most personal oeuvres in contemporary art. The great number of shows current
17、ly devoted to his output, including the major exhibition planned for the Guggenheim (17 February - 7 March, 1995) are ample proof of this attention. Criticized as being a politically correct artist, Gonzalez-Torres strikes back in the following interview, calling for a veritable guerrilla war intell
18、igent and undercover against the plethora of straightforward, moralizing works of art with their angry-young-man messages. Robert Storr: You recently took part in an exhibition in London that placed you in context with Joseph Kosuth, and the pair of you in context with Ad Reinhardt. And I was struck
19、 by the fact that instead of trying to separate yourself from previous generations, you joined with Kosuth in establishing an unexpected aesthetic lineage. Could you talk about that a little bit because on the whole, younger artists generally avoid putting themselves in such close proximity to their
20、 predecessors, especially conceptualists in relation to painters?Felix Gonzalez-Torres: I dont really see it that way. I think more than anything else Im just an extension of certain practices, minimalism or conceptualism, that I am developing areas I think were not totally dealt with. I dont like t
21、his idea of having to undermine your ancestors, of ridiculing them, undermining them, and making less out of them. I think were part of a historical process and I think that this attitude that you have to murder your father in order to start something new is bullshit. We are part of this culture, we
22、 dont come from outer space, so whatever I do is already something that has entered my brain from some other sources and is then synthesized into something new. I respect my elders and I learn from them. Theres nothing wrong with accepting that. Im secure enough to accept those influences. I dont ha
23、ve anxiety about originality, I really dont.READING ALTHUSSER DRUNKHow did that show come about? Joseph and I met one day somewhere downtown, and he was talking about how much he admired Reinhardt, although he was a totally different kind of artist - a painter - belonging to a different generation.
24、It was the same thing for me with Joseph. I will never do the kind of work that Joseph has done. Im not into Heidegger and I dont go to the dictionary and blow up the information into black-and-white photostats. But I respect Josephs work a lot. I think that we in the new generation, the one that ha
25、s used some of the same ideas for the advancement of social issues, owe a lot to artists of the past like Lawrence Weiner and Kosuth. In the essay in the shows catalogue Joseph said it very well, “The failure of conceptual art is actually its success.” Because we, in the next generation, took those
26、strategies and didnt worry if it looked like art or not, that was their business. We just took it and said that it Felix Gonzalez-TorresUntitled (Veterans Day Sale), 1989. Offset print on paper. The Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation. Courtesy of Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York. Felix Gonzalez-TorresCu
27、ban-born artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres was able to imbue simple images and objects with a tremendous depth of meaning and emotion. He belonged to a generation of contemporary American artists who reinterpreted Minimal and Conceptual Art of the1960s and 1970s as a psychological, personal endeavor.His
28、best-known works are the “stack” piecesneat piles of unlimited-edition prints that viewers are encouraged to take but are then intermittently replaced, resulting in a constantly changing height of the sculpture. Untitled (Veterans Day Sale) is one of Gonzalez-Torress first stack pieces. By focusing
29、solely on the commercialism that has become associated with the Veterans Day holiday, it expresses how leisure and consumption have replaced earnest celebrations of historical events. His stacks acquired special poignancy when the artist began to link them with the AIDS epidemic: the slowly dwindlin
30、g piles were a metaphor for the atrophy of AIDS victims bodies. The artist himself died of AIDS in 1996.didnt look like art, theres no question about it but this is what were doing. So I do believe in looking back and going through school reading books. You learn from these people. Then, hopefully,
31、you try to make it, not better (because you cant make it better), but you make it in a way that makes sense. Like the Don Quixote of Pierre Menard by Borges; its exactly the same thing but its better because its right now. It was written with a history of now, although its the same, word by word.RS:
32、 What other theoretical models do you have in mind?FG: Althusser, because what I think he started pointing out were the contradictions within our critique of capitalism. For people who have been reading too much hard-core Marxist theory, it is hard to deal with the fact that theyre not saints. And I
33、 say no, theyre not. Everything is full of contradictions; there are only different degrees of contradiction. We try to get close them, but thats it, they are always going to be there. The only thing to do is to give up and pull the plug, but we cant. Thats the great thing about Althusser, when you
34、read his philosophy. Something that I tell my students is to read once, then if you have problems with it read it a second time. Then if you still have problems, get drunk and read it a third time with a glass of wine next to you and you might get something out of it, but always think about practice
35、. The theory in the books is to make you live better and thats what, I think, all theory should do. Its about trying to show you certain ways of constructing reality. Im not even saying finding (Im using my words very carefully), but there are certain ways of constructing reality that helps you live
36、 better, theres no doubt about it. When I teach, thats what I show my students to read all this stuff without a critical attitude. Theory is not the endpoint of work; it is work along the way to the work. To read it actively is just a process that will hopefully bring us to a less shadowed place.FOR
37、 WHICH AUDIENCERS: When you say what you and some of the people of your generation have done is to deal with the elements of conceptualism that can be used for a political or a social end, how do you define the political or social dimension of art? What do you think the parameters are?FG: Im glad th
38、at this question came up. I realize again how successful ideology is and how easy it was for me to fall into that trap, calling this socio-political art. All art and all cultural production is political.Ill just give you an example. When you raise the question of political or art, people immediately
39、 jump and say, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Leon Golub, Nancy Spero, those are political artists. Then who are the non-political artists, as if that was possible at this point in history? Lets look at abstraction, and lets consider the most successful of those political artists, Helen Frankenthale
40、r. Why are they the most successful political artists, even more than Kosuth, much more than Hans Haacke, much more than Nancy and Leon or Barbara Kruger? Because they dont look political! And as we know its all about looking natural, its all about being the normative aspect of whatever segment of c
41、ulture were dealing with, of life. Thats where someone like Frankenthaler is the most politically successful artist when it comes to the political agenda that those works entail, because she serves a very clear agenda of the Right.For example, here is something the State Department sent to me in 198
42、9, asking me to submit work to the Art and Embassy Program. It has this wonderful quote from George Bernard Shaw, which says, “Besides torture, art is the most persuasive weapon.” And I said I didnt know that the State Department had given up on torture theyre probably not giving up on torture but t
43、heyre using both. Anyway, look at this letter, because in case you missed the point they reproduce a Franz Kline which explains very well what they want in this program. Its a very interesting letter, because its so transparent. Another example: when you have a show with white male straight painters
44、, you dont call it that, that would be absurd, right? Thats just not “natural.” But if you have four Black lesbian sculptors from Brooklyn, thats exactly what you call it, “Four African-American Lesbians from Brooklyn.”RS: Whats your agenda? Who are you trying to reach?FG: When people ask me, “Who i
45、s your public?” I say honestly, without skipping a beat, “Ross.” The public was Ross. The rest of the people just come to the work. In my recent show at the Hirshhorn, which is one of the best experiences I have had in a long time, the guards were really in it. Because I talked to them, I dealt with
46、 them. Theyre going to be here eight hours with this stuff. And I never see guards as guards, I see guards as the public. Since the other answer to the question “Whos the public?” is, well, the people who are around you, which includes the guards. In Washington people asked me, “Did I train the guar
47、ds, did I give them a lecture?” I said, “No, I just talk to them when Im doing the work.” They said, “You know we have never been to an exhibit where the guards go up to the viewers and tell them what to do, and where to go, what to look at, what it means.” But again, that division of labor, that di
48、vision of function is always there in place to serve someones agenda.Untitled (Placebo). 1991. Silver-cellophane-wrapped candies, endlessly replenished supply, ideal weight 1,000 lbs., dimensions variableTHE POLITICAL ARENAWhen I was at Hirshhorn and saw the show, there was one particular guard who
49、was standing with the big candy floor piece Untitled (Placebo), and she was amazing. There was this suburban white, middle class mother, with two young sons who came in the room and in thirty seconds, this woman who was a black, maybe church-going civil servant in Washington, in the middle of all this reactionary
