Felix Gonzalez-Torres: "Untitled" (Tim Hotel)

Felix Gonzalez-Torres:
"Untitled" (Tim Hotel), 1992

Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1957–1996) is one of the most significant artists to emerge in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In its reduced formal vocabulary, conceptual rigor, and evocative use of everyday materials, the artist’s work resonates with meaning that is at once specific and mutable, rigorous and generous, poetic and political.

“Untitled” (Tim Hotel) (1992) is one of twenty-two unique light string sculptures in the artist’s oeuvre. Imbued with meaning that is both personal and universal, each work is purposefully “Untitled”—as open and malleable as the physical form of the work. The parenthetical title of each light string may allude to Gonzalez-Torres’s own life and memories, while simultaneously inspiring unique recollections and associations of the individuals experiencing them. Among their many resonances, these works offer poignant meditations on the conditions of presence and absence, ephemerality and permanence.