Sweet Revenge. Felix González-Torres

The Reina Sofía Museum will host the first major exhibition in Madrid of the work of the Cuban-born American artist, Felix González-Torres (1957-1996), from 27 May to 12 October in the Sabatini Building (Floor 1). His emotional and political dimension continues to resonate today.   

Gonzalez-Torres lived in Madrid in 1971 for a short period of time, as part of a programme to get Cuban children out of their country. This life experience formed part of his early works and throughout his short career.  In 1991, he returned to Madrid for a joint exhibition, in which he  first presented “Untitled” (Revenge), a sculpture of crystal blue sweets.  Reflecting on his first time back in the city, he wrote:  “I have come back to Madrid after almost twenty years: sweet revenge”.

Now, this exhibition at the Reina Sofía Museum uses the idea of “sweet revenge” as a methodological lens to bring his work closer. It seeks to explain his powerful uses of difference, contradiction and paradox in the different ensembles that make up his work. His work leaves room for contingency, transformation and reinterpretation.

The central framework of Sweet Revenge is to show how the work of Gonzalez-Torres simultaneously sustains many conditions, which often appear to be opposing.  The tension between these terms is not incidental but constitutive of his work and is what activates his capacity to generate critical reflection.

As a queer artist working at the height of the AIDS crisis and within a political climate in the USA that was marked by the conservative right, Gonzalez-Torres developed a visual language that was deliberately unstable, participative and deeply personal. 

Image Credits:

• Felix Gonzalez-Torres. “Untitled” (Revenge), 1991. Blue sweets in clear wrappers, endless supply.  Overall dimensions vary with installation. Ideal weight: 325 lb Photography: Javier Campano © Estate Felix Gonzalez-Torres, courtesy of Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation