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Birth
Félix González-Torres or Felix Gonzalez-Torres (November 26, 1957 – January 9, 1996) was a Cuban-born American visual artist.[1][2][3][4] He lived and worked primarily in New York City between 1979 and 1995 after attending university in Puerto Rico. González-Torres’s practice incorporates a minimalist visual vocabulary and certain artworks that are composed of everyday materials such as strings of light bulbs, paired wall clocks, stacks of paper, and individually wrapped candies. -
Perfect Lovers
The clocks must be set to the same time initially though they may fall out of sync over the course of an exhibition. If one or both of the clocks stops functioning, the clocks are deinstalled and repaired, then reinstalled and reset to the same time, allowing the piece to theoretically last forever.[6] [3] -
Puzzles
The 59 puzzle works date from 1987 to 1992. In the process of making these works, Gonzalez-Torres sent snapshots to commercial photo labs that produced novelty items, such as puzzles, from personal photos. The imagery for the puzzle works ranges from photographs of Gonzalez-Torres’s personal life to re-photographed newspaper/magazine clippings. -
Paper Stacks
The ‘paper stacks’ date from 1988 to 1993. The paper stack works consist of a stack (or stacks) of paper. It is integral to the manifestable paper stack works that individuals must be permitted to choose to take individual sheets of paper from the work. Each paper stack work has a specific text, design, image, and/or paper color that is integral to the work. There are 45 individual paper stack works; three of the paper stack works are static (the sheets are not intended to be replenished). -
Curtains
The ‘curtain’ works date from 1989 to 1995.[40] There are five beaded curtain works, each with a specific bead pattern, and one fabric curtain work.[41] Beaded curtain works must be installed in locations where individuals would naturally have the choice to pass through them and the work’s dimensions vary with installation.[42][43] The fabric curtain work is intended to be installed on existing windows as standard curtains would typically appear.[44] -
Billboards
The billboard works date from 1989 to 1995. The billboard works consist of specific images or texts that are installed at billboard scale.[33] It is essential to 14 of the 17 billboard works that they must be installed in multiple, diverse, public/outdoor sets of locations (ideally 24 locations at a time).[34] Documentation of each billboard location is an essential aspect of these works.[35] -
Portrait of Ross in LA
The ‘candy works’ date from 1990 to 1993. The dimensions for the majority of the candy works include an “ideal weight.” (In total there are 20 candy works. Fifteen of the candy works have ideal ‘weights’, four of these ‘ideal weights’ may correlate to an average body weight of an adult male, and three may correlate to a combined average body weight of two adult men.) The medium for each candy work includes “endless supply” as well as “dimensions vary with installation.”[38] -
Light Strings
The ‘light string’ works date from 1992 to 1994. The light strings were produced by an electrician in conversation with the artist and consist of commonplace electrical components. Each light string work can only exist in one place at a time; which is in contrast to Gonzalez-Torres’s manifestable works that are also made of commonplace materials. -
Mirros
There are four individual mirror works dating from 1992 to 1994. Three of these works consist of mirrors of a specific size that are either hung on or embedded in the wall. One of the mirror works consists of a mirrored box that is displayed on the ground.[53]