The work of Félix González-Torres, who is considered by many to be among the most accomplished artist of his generation, frays the edges between the private and the collective. Both intensely subjective and politically radical, his art is infused with poetic rigour and lightness of touch.

González-Torres, whose art was couched in the ‘detached’ visual language of conceptualism and minimalism, nonetheless engaged with uncomfortable social issues. And although at first sight his work may look difficult, it is in fact direct and approachable. In pieces such as the paper stack, from which visitors to the Gallery are permitted to take a sheet, the involvement of the public can be literal; more commonly, however, the viewer’s participation is necessary in another sense: González-Torres encourages us to ‘complete’ his work with our own memories and associations. This is how they come alive.

Much of the work in this exhibition dealt with personal ideas and feelings about the passage of time, the vulnerability of the individual, and the fragility of life – topics that were doubtless prominent in the mind of a gay Cuban artist living in New York during the 1980s. And although the dominant tone in his work is one of absence and loss, it is balanced by a determination to make the world a better place in which to live. To González-Torres, his art was partly about learning to ‘let go’ – it was an attempt to come to terms with, or to rehearse, the experience of death – but it also allowed for the possibility of infinite renewal, as well as for the celebration of the elegance and ecstasy that can be found in the ordinariness of daily life.

Text by John Hutchison

Review | ‘How many lightbulbs?’ by Aidan Dunne, The Irish Times, January 6 2000.

The exhibition was made possible due to the generosity of many private and institutional lenders particularly the Estate of Félix González-Torres.

Image: Félix González-Torres, Untitled (For Stockholm), 1992. Installation View. Image courtesy of the Estate of Félix González-Torres.