"Untitled" (L.A.)

“‘Meaning’ is created once something can be related to personal experience” - Felix Gonzalez-Torres

The Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art is proud to present “Untitled” (L.A.), an exhibition that focuses on a single artwork of the same name by the late Cuban-American artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres.

“Untitled” (L.A.) uses quotes from the artist, his critics, and his friends to highlight the generous ambiguity of this enigmatic ‘candy spill' piece. How many different ways can we approach it? As a process of institutional gift-giving, as a subversive tweaking of the museum as an institution, as a response to the materiality of Minimalism, as an embodiment of ideas he absorbed from Walter Benjamin, as a memorial to his great love, Ross Laycock (1959 - 1991, a victim of the AIDS virus), or as all of these and more?

Taking inspiration from the fragmented clusters of text excerpts in Benjamin’s Arcades Project, the Barrick Museum has created a rotating series of brochures containing a variety of quotes that can be used as starting points for deeper investigations. By inviting us to consider the different perspectives we choose to use when we look at an artwork, “Untitled” (L.A.) becomes both a celebration of Gonzalez-Torres as an artist and a tribute to the open-ended character of art.

“[A]n invitation opens up a space of decision and leaves one free: free to decide, as in the case of the work by Gonzalez-Torres, to touch, to take one piece or more than one piece of candy, to eat it or save it, or perhaps even to give it to someone else, and to let them decide what to do with it - accept it, eat it, keep it, or give it to someone else in turn” - John Paul Ricco.

“Felix had a way of maximizing every encounter, even transforming the seemingly irredeemable into a valuable experience” - Andrea Rosen.

“Untitled” (L.A.) is on view at the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art from March 25th, 2022 - December 2022. The Barrick Museum is open from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Tuesday to Saturday. Entry is free.

The loan of Felix Gonzalez-Torres, “Untitled” (L.A.) to the Marjorie Barrick Museum is made possible from the collection of the Art Bridges Foundation, a private operating foundation whose mission is to increase access to American art across the U.S.