This exhibition presents the snapshots that artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres sent to friends and colleagues. Taken with a simple 35-millimeter camera, the images range from humorous tableaux created with the toys he collected to evocative scenes such as depictions of birds flying among the clouds, which relate to his artwork. Gonzalez-Torres often wrote personal notes, poems, or other musings on the back of these photographs. These writings offer insight into an artist who blurred the distinctions between private life and the public realm in his work. The texts on view are photographic copies of the backs of the snapshots. Included in the exhibition is a selection of works by Gonzalez-Torres from the Marieluise Hessel Collection on permanent loan to the Center for Curatorial Studies. The inclusion of these works provides a context for Gonzalez-Torres's writings and suggests connections between his casual picture taking and his art.
The following people lent their snapshots to this display:
Doug Ashford
Julie Ault
Susan Cahan
Amada Cruz
Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz
David Deitcher
Russell Ferguson
Ann Goldstein and Chris Williams
Tim Hailand
Michael Jenkins
Private Collection
This exhibition is made possible by Carlos and Rosa de la Cruz. Gonzalez-Torres was born in Guaimaro, Cuba, in 1957. He was raised in Puerto Rico and lived in New York until his death in 1996. One of the most influential artists of his generation, Gonzalez-Torres used everyday materials in his work to speak of love, loss, and memory. Rather than monumental gestures, Gonzalez-Torres's art is characterized by a modest and poetic sensibility that values the ephemeral, the personal, and the suggestive.