Homosexual activist, Gonzalez-Torres conceives his work as a sharing. Going up to a logical consequence of his approach, he states that a certificate of authenticity must be re-issued every time the work changes ownership. He provides the starting point of the element to accumulate, which the user may decrease or increase. The curator of the exhibition is invited to change at will the overall shape, after the anti-art sculptures by Lygia Clark.
In 1991, Gonzalez-Torres's creativity is exacerbated by the final AIDS of his partner which arouses in him some humanist thoughts. The artist will die of the same disease five years later.
An example is the stack of identical prints 72 x 109 cm that can be copied at will and to which the artist suggests an ideal height of 8 inches. This work was sold for $ 1.65M including premium by Sotheby's on May 10, 2011.
The accumulation of candies individually wrapped in their cellophane paper is the ultimate refinement of the art of Gonzalez-Torres and his most demanded theme on the art market. The removal of an element brings to the maker of the action the noise of the unwrapping and the sweet taste of the candy.
A work in light blue paper executed in 1992 with an ideal weight of 90 kg was sold for $ 4.6 million including premium by Phillips de Pury on 8 November 2010. Another variant carried out in 1991 in green paper with an ideal weight of 50 pounds is estimated $ 5M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 10, lot 43B.
SOLD for $ 7.7M including premium
Felix Gonzalez-Torres' Untitled (L.A.) sold for $7,669,000, a #WorldAuctionRecord for the artist. pic.twitter.com/fkMivpsfYU
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) November 11, 2015