Felix Gonzalez-Torres
It's Just a Matter of Time
March 30 – May 4, 2002
Gallery 2
Looking at Felix Gonzalez-Torres' body of work, it becomes clear that there are a number of pieces that are uncanny harbingers of the current tumultuous times. As is the purpose and nature of Gonzalez-Torres' work, not only does it create an opportunity to perpetually reevaluate meaning, the work evolves to take on layers as the world impacts on the work. Recent global events allow these works to be reread in the light of an ongoing historical framework.
The core of this project involves a simultaneous exhibition of the same works – one exhibition at Sadie Coles HQ in London from March 20th to April 20th and one at Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, from March 30th to May 4th. The shows bring together a selection of Gonzalez-Torres' work, dating from 1986 to 1992, that is extremely pertinent to the time, highlighting how the ideology of Gonzalez-Torres' work persists and sustains itself in different contexts. This exhibition also underscores the need for a vital political discourse in our current artistic climate. Pieces such as the untitled stack piece from 1990 with newspaper clippings on both sides referring to germ warfare and the Pentagon's assurance that we are not at risk (catalogue raisonné #82), the C-print jigsaw puzzle piece "Untitled" (I Love NY), a rephotographed newspaper image of a soldier's hand on which he has written "Hi I ♥ NY" (catalogue raisonné #177), and the 1992 billboard "Untitled" (It's Just a Matter of Time) (catalogue raisonné #190) will be exhibited at both spaces, along with earlier framed works which specifically allude to the current events.
Having two venues emphasizes a number of the main concepts of Gonzalez-Torres' work. That it is possible for the works to exist in more than one place at one time; that the uniqueness of the work is not defined by its pure physicality but by its concept, choice of installation and its ownership; and how interpretation is not necessarily consistent but shifts with location, pointing out the freedom and need for a non-homogenous point of view.
The exhibition and its intention will be extended beyond England and America with a worldwide installation of the billboard, "Untitled" (It's Just a Matter of Time). This billboard was originally exhibited in 1992 in Hamburg in conjunction with an exhibition organized by the Kunstverein in Hamburg titled "Gegendarstellung - Ethics/Aesthetics in Times of AIDS. It consists of a black background with white German text in Gothic typeface. For our project the piece will be translated into the language of the country in which it is situated, remaining in Roman alphabet in the distinct Gothic typeface always inevitably linked to German history. The parameters of Gonzalez-Torres' billboard works is that when exhibited they must be installed in a minimum of six outdoor locations. This has generally been interpreted as locations in the city of the venue. As a reflection of the impact September 11 has had on the whole world, and how it illuminates how each country's politics affect others, we have orchestrated the installation of this work on a global sight. In each location the work will potentially have an extremely varied resonance and its interpretation will be both universally bonding as well as contradictory. With the support of various institutions and individuals, one billboard will be exhibited in each country including, among others, Colombia, India, Japan, Canada, and a number of European countries, east and west.
Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Specific Objects without Specific Form
Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Specific Objects Without Specific Form documents the groundbreaking exhibition curated by Elena Filipovic with Danh Vo, Carol Bove, and Tino Sehgal that traveled to WIELS, Brussels; Fondation Beyeler, Basel/Riehen; and MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt in 2010 and 2011. Filipovic curated a retrospective at all three venues, evolving at each location. Midway through each exhibition, Filipovic's installation was removed or altered by one of the artists who was invited to completely reconsider and re-install their own version of the exhibition without any limitations. The result of this structure was a profound meditation on the role that ongoing change and renewal play in Gonzalez-Torres's work.
The book has been years in the making as Elena Filipovic and the Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation worked together to find the best ways to present the complexities and nuances of the exhibition. The book includes installation views of each version of the exhibition and an expansive illustrated checklist with images of each artwork in every instance of its installation. The book's structure allows the reader to see the immensely different ways the artworks can be installed as well as how context acted on and through each piece.
Format: Hardcover, 7.5 X 11 IN. / 664 pages / 595 color
Publisher: Koenig Books (February 28, 2017)
ISBN 9783863359737
To purchase Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Specific Objects Without Specific Form please email info@rosengallery.com.
Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Double
Published on the occasion of the first museum presentation of Felix Gonzalez-Torres's work in Asia at PLATEAU, and Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea, June 21 - 28 Sept. 28, 2012
Felix Gonzalez-Torres
Edited by Julie Ault
Felix Gonzalez-Torres lived and worked resolutely according to his own idealistic principles, combining elements of Conceptual art, Minimalism, political activism, and poetic beauty in an ever-expanding arsenal of media, including public billboards, give-away piles of candy and posters, and ordinary objects--clocks, mirrors, light fixtures--used to startling effect. His work challenged the notions of public and private space, originality, authorship and--most significantly--the authoritative structures in which he and his viewers functioned. Editor Julie Ault has amassed the first comprehensive monograph to span Gonzalez-Torres's career. In the spirit of his method, she rethinks the very idea of what a monograph should be. The book, which places strong emphasis on the written word, contains newly commissioned texts by Robert Storr and Miwon Kwon, an introduction by Susan Cahill and an extended conversation with fellow artist Tim Rollins, as well as significant critical essays, exhibition statements, transcripts from lectures, personal correspondence, and writings that influenced Gonzalez-Torres and his work. Ample visual documentation adds another important layer of content. We see works not just in their completed state, but often in process, which for Gonzalez-Torres could mean the process of disappearing as viewers interacted with them.
Felix Gonzalez-Torres
By Lisa Corrin
Published on the occasion of the retrospective exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery, London, June 1 – July 16 2000.
Paperback: 88 pages
Publisher: Serpentine Gallery (June 2000)
ISBN-10: 1870814371
ISBN-13: 978-1870814379
Felix Gonzalez-Torres
Texts by Dietmar Elger, Rainer Fuchs, Roland Wäspe, David Deitcher, and Andrea Rosen
Catalogue Raisonné in two volumes, published in conjunction with the posthumous 1997 traveling retrospective at Sprengel Museum Hannover, Germany; Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland; Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Austria.
Hardcover: 296 pages
Publisher: Hatje Cantz Publishers (July 2, 1997)
ISBN-10: 3893228837
ISBN-13: 978-3893228836
Felix Gonzalez-Torres
By Nancy Spector. Published by Guggenheim Museum.
Originally published to accompany the artist's solo exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in 1995, and reissued on the occasion of the 2007 Venice Biennale (June 1-November 21), where Felix Gonzalez-Torres would represent the United States.
Written by Nancy Spector in close consultation with the artist and reflecting and expanding upon his ideas at the time, Felix Gonzalez-Torres presents a thematic overview of the artist's rich, many-layered practice, including the signature paper stacks, candy spills, light strings and billboards--and demonstrates his continued resonance today.
Nancy Spector is Chief Curator at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, and U.S. Commissioner to the 2007 Venice Biennale.
Hardcover: 228 pages
Publisher: Guggenheim Museum (May 1, 2007)
ISBN-10: 0892073624
ISBN-13: 978-0892073627
Felix Gonzalez-Torres
Essays by Amada Cruz, Russell Ferguson, Ann Goldstein, bell hooks, Joseph Kosuth, and Charles Merewether
Published on the occasion of the traveling exhibition, Felix Gonzalez-Torres at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. April 24 – June 19, 1994. Co-organized by Amanda Cruz, Ann Goldstein and Suzanne Ghez; The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. June 16 – Sept. 11, 1994.; The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, IL., Oct. 2 – 6 Nov. 6, 1994
Paperback: 80 pages
Publisher: Distributed Art Pub Inc (Dap) (June 2, 1994)
ISBN-10: 0914357352
ISBN-13: 978-0914357353