"Felix Gonzalez-Torres produced work of uncompromising beauty and simplicity, transforming the everyday into profound meditations on love and loss. “Untitled” (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) is an allegorical representation of the artist’s partner, Ross Laycock, who died of an AIDS-related illness in 1991. The installation is comprised of 175 pounds of candy, corresponding to Ross’s ideal body weight. Viewers are encouraged to take a piece of candy, and the diminishing amount parallels Ross’s weight loss and suffering prior to his death. Gonzalez-Torres stipulated that the pile should be continuously replenished, thus metaphorically granting perpetual life."AIC
Félix González-Torres' "Untitled (pefect lovers)" is a such a poetic simple piece of two clocks started at the same time and touching. And of course overtime the second hands might get out of sinc or one might stop once it runs out of batteries before the other. The idea after I first saw it, continued to stay with me. It's romantic in a way I hadn't experienced with much art before. But I enjoyed that the idea of such sentiment could be powerful and strong not so weak and cliche. It was beautiful.
His billboards are similar to that in the sense that they are making the personal very public. He installed images of an unoccupied bed with dents in the pillow to suggest where two people were sleeping, made in 1991 after losing his partner, Ross Laycock, to AIDS. "In one interview, he said "When people ask me, 'Who is your public?' I say honestly, without skipping a beat, 'Ross.' The public was Ross. The rest of the people just come to the work."wiki
