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Felix Gonzalez-Torres

Untitled (for Parkett no. 39)

1994

Screenprinted billboard, on 8 sheets, and certificate

Not on view

Typically used for commercial and political promotion, billboards are rarely sites of personal narrative or expression. American artist Felix Gonzalez–Torres subverted this convention in this work, a billboard commissioned by the contemporary art journal Parkett. The billboard shows a beach or sandlot covered in footprints. The absence of any text allows the work to suggest a multiplicity of meanings—a journey, the passing of time, the absence of human presence, even death.

Gonzalez–Torres symbolically likened art to the powerful trace of footsteps, when he said, "It leaves a mark. It leaves a statement that you were here, that perhaps it is possible to have a different view of life."

Gallery label from

2006.

Medium Screenprinted billboard, on 8 sheets, and certificate
Dimensions Overall: 125 x 272" (317.5 x 690.9 cm)
Publisher Parkett Publishers, Zürich and New York
Printer Triumph Productions, New York
Edition 84
Credit Riva Castleman Endowment Fund, Lily Auchincloss Fund, and Gift of Parkett
Object number 67.1998.a-i
Department Drawings and Prints

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Felix Gonzalez-Torres

American, born Cuba. 1957–1996 22 works online

Felix Gonzalez-Torres created 20 unique candy works between 1990 and 1993. These generally bright and shiny sculptural accumulations are each composed of a different type of wrapped candy , which have included chocolate, licorice, bubble gum, and lollipops—and each work has a listed ideal weight specified by the artist.

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