Felix Gonzalez-Torres Shows the Way for Met Contemporary

The Met's Tang Wing for Modern and Contemporary Art is due to open in 2030, but next year visitors will get a taste of its approach with a show of work by Felix Gonzalez-Torres.

The late Cuban-American artist, who used minimalist forms to maximum emotional and political effect, explored themes of love, loss, memory, and identity.

He frequently inviting viewer participation in his installations. For example, in his signature candy works, such as Untitled (Placebo – Landscape – for Roni) (1993), visitors are free to take pieces from a vast spill of gold-wrapped confectionary, while another untitled work of 1990 allows viewers to take sheets of printed paper from a towering stack.

His works also convey complex narratives through understated means, particularly in his reflections on mortality created during the AIDS pandemic. Gonzalez-Torres died of AIDS in 1996 at the height of his powers as an artist.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres: The Spaces Between is due to run from June 10 to October 18, 2027 and it is being organized by David Breslin, the Met's curator in charge, Modern and contemporary art, and MOCA, LA's Ann Goldstein.

The artist, who deftly sidestepped the culture wars of the 1990s, once said: "Above all else, it is about leaving a mark that I existed: I was here... I had an idea and I had a good purpose and that's why I made works of art."