Untitled (March 5th) #2

Artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres (Cuban, 1957 - 1996)

Date1991

Medium40-watt light bulbs, porcelain light sockets, and extension cords

DimensionsInstallation height: 113 inches (287.02 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: acquired through the generosity of the William T. Kemper Foundation–Commerce Bank, Trustee

Object number2005.4

Edition/State/Proofed. 8/20

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

Contemporary Art

Terms

DescriptionThis sculpture consists of two 40-watt light bulbs in porcelain light sockets, with two white extension cords.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Felix Gonzalez-Torres/Michael Jenkins, Galerie Xavier Hufkens, Brussels, March 20-April 20, 1991, no cat.

Three or More: A Multiple Exhibition, Wacoal Art Center, Spiral, Tokyo, Japan, 1992, no cat.

Absence, Activism, and the Body Politic, Fischbach Gallery, New York, 1994, no cat.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Traveling, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, April 24-June 19, 1994; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC, June 16-September 11, 1994, hors. cat, (Washington D.C. only).

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1995, 183, 182, (repro.), unnumbered.

Gallery Label

Felix Gonzalez-Torres was a gay-rights activist whose subtle political commentary included personal statements on the emotional devastation of AIDS. In 1991, after his partner, Ross, died of AIDS, Gonzalez-Torres created numerous memorials to him, including Untitled (March 5th) # 2, which commemorates Ross' birth date.

Here, two factory-made light bulbs shine together to suggest a pair of lovers in one shared point of illumination. Although they glow brightly in unison, one bulb will inevitably burn out before the other, reminding us of the transience of human relationships and the temporality of life.

Provenance

Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, by 2005;

Purchased from Andrea Rosen Gallery by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2005.

Published References

Nancy Spector, Gonzalez-Torres, exh. cat. (New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1995), 183, 182, (repro.).

Nancy Spector, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Roni Horn (Munich: Sammlung-Goetz, 1995), 12.

Christopher Chapman, Personal Effects: On Aspects of Work by Felix Gonzalez-Torres (Spring:

BROADsheet, 1996), 16.

Nancy Spector, Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Quelle heure est-ll au paradis? (Musée Départmental de

Rochechouart, 1996), 10.

Jan Schall and Robert Storr, Sparks! The William T. Kemper Collecting Initiative at the Nelson-Atkins

Museum of Art (Kansas City: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 80, 81, (repro.).

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