About this artwork
Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s diaphanous and ephemeral bead-curtain sculptures are among the defining works of his remarkable career. Designed for installation as a threshold within a space—defining a moment of transition—they physically engage the viewer, who must penetrate the cascading beads to navigate the space fully.
“Untitled” (Golden) is one of the last curtain works that Gonzalez-Torres conceived before his death. The artist recognized the potential of the inexpensive, mass-produced gold beads; indeed, he possessed an uncanny ability to produce elegant and restrained forms out of otherwise common materials. The beads conjure at once the pop or hippie culture of the late 1960s and 1970s as well as the glitz of opulence. Usually connoting wealth, solidity, and permanence, gold is rendered here as its opposite: inexpensive, permeable, and transitory.
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Status
- Currently Off View
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Department
- Contemporary Art
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Artist
- Felix Gonzalez-Torres
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Title
- "Untitled" (Golden)
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Place
- United States (Artist's nationality:)
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Date
- 1995
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Medium
- Strands of beads and hanging device
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Dimensions
- Dimensions vary with installation
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Credit Line
- The Art Institute of Chicago, through prior gift of Adeline Yates; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, through prior gifts of J. D. Zellerbach, Gardner Dailey, and an anonymous donor; and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, through prior gift of Solomon R. Guggenheim; partial gift of Andrea Rosen, in honor of Felix Gonzalez-Torres
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Reference Number
- 2008.400
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Copyright
- © 1995 The Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation.
Extended information about this artwork
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.
