Felix Gonzalez-Torres "Untitled" (Toronto) 1992

  • MoMA, Floor 2, 208 The David Geffen Wing

Here Gonzalez-Torres has imbued common utilitarian objects—lightbulbs strung together—with poetic significance. The cords, like two lives, are intertwined. The life-span of the bulbs, like that of a person, is of a particular duration and will ultimately burn out.

The artist said, "I don't necessarily know how these pieces are best displayed. I don't have all of the answers—you [the owner] decide how you want it done. Whatever you want to do, try it. This is not some Minimalist artwork that has to be exactly two inches to the left and six inches down. Play with it, please. Have fun. Give yourself that freedom. Put my creativity into question...."

Gallery label from 2006.
Medium
Light bulbs, extension cord, and porcelain light sockets
Dimensions
Dimensions vary with installation 42' (12.8 meters) long, with 20' (6 meters) extra cord
Credit
Gift of Emily and Jerry Spiegel
Object number
295.1997
Copyright
© 2023 The Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation, Courtesy Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York
Department
Painting and Sculpture

Installation views

We have identified these works in the following photos from our exhibition history.

How we identified these works

In 2018–19, MoMA collaborated with Google Arts & Culture Lab on a project using machine learning to identify artworks in installation photos. That project has concluded, and works are now being identified by MoMA staff.

If you notice an error, please contact us at [email protected].

Licensing

If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in MoMA’s collection, or an image of a MoMA publication or archival material (including installation views, checklists, and press releases), please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations).

MoMA licenses archival audio and select out of copyright film clips from our film collection. At this time, MoMA produced video cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. All requests to license archival audio or out of copyright film clips should be addressed to Scala Archives at [email protected]. Motion picture film stills cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. For access to motion picture film stills for research purposes, please contact the Film Study Center at [email protected]. For more information about film loans and our Circulating Film and Video Library, please visit https://www.moma.org/research/circulating-film.

If you would like to reproduce text from a MoMA publication, please email [email protected]. If you would like to publish text from MoMA’s archival materials, please fill out this permission form and send to [email protected].

Feedback

This record is a work in progress. If you have additional information or spotted an error, please send feedback to [email protected].