Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Sweet Revenge

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía presents Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Sweet Revenge. Co-curated by Alejandro Cesarco and Nancy Spector, the exhibition uses the paradox of “sweet revenge” as a methodological lens through which to understand the powerful use of nuanced contradiction in the artist’s oeuvre. For Gonzalez-Torres, the idea of “sweet revenge” as an artistic strategy assumed the mode of beauty as a form of contestation in work that moves between resistance and celebration. Through it, the artist modeled a way of being in the world. “Sweet revenge” is by no means harmful, but meant to repair harm by making visible those who are marginalized or silenced.

The city of Madrid was an emotionally fraught site for Felix Gonzalez-Torres, one he contemplated in his early work and consistently referenced throughout his all-too-brief career. In 1971, he was sent to Spain with his sister as part of a program to transport children out of Cuba, staying in Madrid for a brief period of time before being relocated to Puerto Rico. He did not return until 1990 on the occasion of a group exhibition at the La Fundación Caja de Pensiones. For this show, he presented the sculpture “Untitled” (Revenge), 1991, a spill of crystal blue confections. Reflecting on his first return to the city, he wrote, “went back to Madrid after almost twenty years—sweet revenge.”