User:Lizsantillan30/sandbox

Article evaluation Felix Gonzalez-Torres •Cuban-born American •Visual artist •Openly gay sexual orientation influenced his art work (experience with AIDS) •Ross Laycock (his partner/lover) inspired many of his artwork of the time they spent together •He considered himself a proud American

Article Editing
== Felix Gonzalez-Torres (November 26, 1957 – January 9, 1996) was a Cuban-born American visual artist. Gonzalez-Torres’s openly gay sexual orientation is often seen as influential in his work as an artist. Gonzalez-Torres was known for his minimal installations and sculptures in which he used materials such as strings of lightbulbs, clocks, stacks of paper, or packaged hard candies. In 1987, he joined Group Material, a New York-based group of artists whose intention was to work collaboratively, adhering to principles of cultural activism and community education. Gonzalez-Torres's 1992 piece "Untitled" (Portrait of Marcel Brient) sold for $4.6 million at Phillips de Pury & Company in 2010, a record for the artist at auction. == Contents [hide] 1	Early life and career 2	Work 2.1	Dateline Installations 2.2	Participatory Artworks 2.3	Billboards 3	Institutional Exhibitions 3.1	U.S. Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale 3.2	Felix Gonzalez-Torres. Specific Objects without Specific Form 4	Legacy 5	Art market 6	Bibliography 7	See also 8	Notes 9	References 10	External links Early life and career[edit] Gonzalez-Torres was born in Guáimaro, Cuba. In 1957, he and his sister Gloria were sent to Madrid where they stayed in an orphanage until settling in Puerto Rico with relatives the same year.[1] Gonzalez-Torres graduated from Colegio San Jorge in 1976 and began his art studies at the University of Puerto Rico while actively participating in the local art scene.[2] He moved to New York City in 1979 with a study fellowship.[3] The following year he participated in the Whitney Independent Study Program where his development as an artist was profoundly influenced by his introduction to critical theory. He attended the program a second time in 1983, the year he received a BFA in photography from the Pratt Institute of Art. In 1986, Gonzalez-Torres traveled to Europe and studied in Venice. In 1987 he was awarded the degree of Master of Fine Arts by the International Center of Photography and New York University.[4] Subsequently he taught at New York University and briefly at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia.[1] In 1992 Gonzalez-Torres was granted a DAAD fellowship to work in Berlin, and in 1993 a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Gonzalez-Torres died in Miami in 1996 due to AIDS.

Work[edit] Gonzalez-Torres was known for his quiet, minimal installations and sculptures. Using materials such as strings of lightbulbs, clocks, stacks of paper, or packaged hard candies, his work is sometimes considered a reflection of his experience with AIDS. As an openly gay man, he felt it was "much more powerful to assume that the gay and straight audience was the same audience, that being a Cuban-born American is the same as being an American. And being American was something he was extremely proud of." [5] In 1987 he joined Group Material, a New York-based artist collaborative consisting of Doug Ashford, Julie Ault, Karen Ramspacher, and Gonzalez-Torres that adhered to principles of cultural activism and community education.[6] Group Material was invited by the MATRIX Gallery at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in 1989 to deal with the subject of AIDS. The result was Group Material's first "AIDS Timeline" [7]

All of Gonzalez-Torres' works, with few exceptions, are entitled "Untitled" in quotation marks, sometimes followed by parenthetical title. (This was an intentional titling scheme by the artist).[8][9] Of Gonzalez-Torres’s nineteen candy pieces, only six, by their parenthetical titles and ideal weights, can be readily interpreted as portraits. Of these two are double portraits of the artist and his lover, Ross Laycock; two are portraits of Ross alone; one is a portrait of Felix’s deceased father; and "Untitled" (Portrait of Marcel Brient) (1992) is a portrait of the artist’s close friend, French collector Marcel Brient.[10]

Ross Laycock is also thought to have inspired many of Gonzalez-Torres's other works, including "Untitled" (Perfect Lovers) (1991) and "Untitled" (Placebo) (1991).[11][12] For instance, in "Untitled" (Perfect Lovers) (1991), the two clocks are suggestive of the relationship between the two and their time spent together.[11] With Laycock's death in 1991, Gonzalez-Torres created works that could help him cope with the loss of his partner.[12] These pieces, such as "Untitled" (Placebo) (1991), often involve installments that slowly disappear or expire over time — a metaphor for Laycock's passing due to AIDS-related illnesses.[13][14][15]

The most pervasive reading of Gonzalez-Torres's work takes the processes his works undergo (lightbulbs expiring, piles of candies dispersing, etc.) as metaphor for the process of dying. However, many have seen the works also representing the continuation of life with the possibility of regeneration (replacing bulbs, replenishing stacks or candies).[16][17] Other readings include the issue of public versus private, identity, and participation in contemporary art.[18] His piece "Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.)" for example, illustrates not one, but combined moments that represent the history of the queer community. This may portray the dissolution of the gay community that was diagnosed with HIV/Aids. As a person eats the candy and throws it away, the pile decreases in size, which represents how society ignored the existence of this epidemic, which then led to deaths of many gay people. [19]

Inspired by an article published by TIME magazine in July 17, 1989, Torres explored the relationship America has with guns with a piece named "Untitled" (Death by Gun). In his piece, Gonzales-Torres, pays homage to the 460-people killed in America by gunshot in the weeks of May 1-7, 1989. He makes us reflect on the grim reality of the gun violence in America, presenting a sobering view of the many lives lost cut short. His piece is composed of a stack of lithographs with the picture of the deceased with the description of the individuals, their age, city and state where they lived, followed by a brief description of the cause of death. Gonzales-Torres makes us search our souls and our ethics as if calling for a review of the gun violence epidemic in the country.[20]

Dateline Installations[edit] In his "dateline" pieces, begun in 1987, Gonzalez-Torres assembled lists of various dates in random order interspersed with the names of social and political figures and references to cultural artifacts or world events, many of which related to political and cultural history. Printed in white type on black sheets of photographic paper by the "photostat" process, these lists of seeming non sequiturs prompted viewers to consider the relationships and gaps between the diverse references as well the construction of individual and collective identities and memories. Gonzalez-Torres also produced dateline "portraits," consisting of similar lists of dates and events related to the subjects' lives. In "Untitled" (Portrait of Jennifer Flay) (1992), for example, "A New Dress 1971" lies next to "Vote for Women, NZ 1893."[21]

In 1989 Gonzalez-Torres presented "Untitled" (Memorial Day Weekend) and "Untitled" (Veterans Day Sale), exhibited together as "Untitled" (Monuments): block-like stacks of paper printed with content related to his private life, from which the viewer is invited to take a sheet. Rather than constituting a solid, immovable monument, the stacks can be dispersed, depleted, and renewed over time.[27] "Untitled" (1991), however, is a unique stack of 161 signed and numbered silkscreens that remain together. Similar to the 1989 billboard commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion, its iteration as a stack of prints was meant, as the artist noted at the time, as a “more private and personal object”—one that is not disseminated physically but instead through the experience of remembering. The stark black page and white typeface on each sheet trace a nonlinear chronology of significant events in the history of the gay-rights movement.[28]

In 1991 Gonzalez-Torres began producing sculptures consisting of strands of plastic beads strung on metal rods,[29] which often reference the organic and inorganic substances associated with battling AIDS.[30] Around the same time, he made his first lightstring piece — two intertwined low-watt lightbulbs on cords dangling from a nail on the wall. Twenty-four nearly identical lightstrings exist, differentiated only by their parenthetical titles and the display chosen by each work's owner.[31] Each sculpture can be arranged in any way a particular installer wishes, and thus holds the potential for unlimited variations.[32] Over the course of any given installation, some of the bulbs are sure to burn out.

Billboards[edit] One of his most recognizable works, "Untitled" (1991), was a billboard installed in twenty-four locations throughout New York City of a monochrome photograph of an unoccupied bed, made after the death of his long-time partner, Ross Laycock, from AIDS. In one interview, he said "When people ask me, 'Who is your public?' I say honestly, without skipping a beat, 'Ross.' The public was Ross. The rest of the people just come to the work."[12] "Untitled" (It's Just a Matter of Time) is a billboard originally exhibited in 1992 in Hamburg in conjunction with an exhibition organized by the Kunstverein in Hamburg titled "Gegendarstellung - Ethics/Aesthetics in Times of AIDS". It consists of a black background with white German text in Gothic typeface. In 1993, Gonzalez-Torres mounted two simultaneous gallery exhibitions in Paris entitled Travel #1 and Travel #2: Travel #1 contained two billboards both installed inside the gallery, one featuring a view of a turbulent and brooding sky, the other an image of lone bird, photographed from below, floating effortlessly beneath an overcast sky; one of several works in "Travel #2" was "Untitled" (Passport #11), a stack of passport sized booklets featuring the same imagery as the billboards in Travel #1. Like his other stack pieces, viewers were invited to help themselves.[33]

U.S. Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale[edit] In 2007, Gonzalez-Torres was selected as the United States' official representative at the Venice Biennale, curated by Nancy Spector. The artist's previously controversial status influenced the 1995 decision to reject him for the Venice pavilion in favor of Bill Viola.[37] His posthumous show (the only other posthumous representative from the United States was Robert Smithson in 1982)[38] at the U.S. Pavilion featured, among others, "Untitled", 1992–95, a never-before-realized sculpture in the courtyard of the pavilion: two adjoining, circular reflecting pools, the sides of which touch just enough at a single point to share an almost undetectable flow of water. Between 1992 and 1995 Gonzalez-Torres sketched at least five variations of these pools, expanding upon his motif of paired rings. The first known sketch for the twin pools represents Gonzalez-Torres' submission to an outdoor sculpture competition sponsored by Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington in 1992. The drawing indicates that each pool should be twelve-feet in diameter, a detail that would remain constant in each subsequent drawing and description. Gonzalez-Torres returned to the motif in 1994 when planning a one-person exhibition for the Musée d'Art Contemporain in Bordeaux, which he postponed because of its proximity in time to his Guggenheim retrospective; he died before the show could be realized. For the Bordeaux installation, he envisioned a pair of indoor pools flush with the floor. When outlining his ideas for the exhibition, Gonzalez-Torres also created a sketch of an outdoor version of the pools, and this is the one realized on the occasion of the Venice Biennale. Untitled and open-ended in terms of their possible materials, the pools presented here were carved from white Carrara marble.[39]

Legacy[edit] In May 2002, the Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation was created.[41] The Foundation hopes "to foster an appreciation for the work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres among the general public, scholars, and art historians."[41] Since 1990, Gonzalez-Torres' work is represented by Andrea Rosen Gallery,[42] which heavily exhibited his work both before and after his death. The Foundation assisted the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University in the organization of the Felix González-Torres Community Art Project, a three-year initiative that sponsors visits of internationally renowned contemporary artists to the campus of the school. The Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation is still overseen by Andrea Rosen but is now operating in collaboration with David Zwirner Gallery, New York.[43]

=Peer Review =
 * In the early life section, it says how Felix and his sister were sent to an orphanage; my suggestion would be maybe finding out why they were sent to an orphanage in the first place.
 * Finding what inspirations or role models are that made him want to take art as a career.
 * Finding why he chose to use his specific art style rather than doing paintings, sculpture, etc...
 * Maybe add about his art more in detail where it may be needed, inspirations, his part in the AIDS epidemic Dreasalvador (talk) 01:26, 8 March 2018 (UTC)

=Article=

In January 1900, the four-masted steamship S.S. Australia laid anchor in the Port of San Francisco.[26] The ship sailed between Honolulu and San Francisco regularly, and its passengers and crew were declared clean. Cargo from Honolulu, unloaded at a dock near the outfall of Chinatown's sewers, allowed rats carrying the plague to leave the ship and transmit the infection. However, it is difficult to trace the infection to a single vessel.[27] Wherever it came from, the disease was soon established in the cramped Chinese ghetto neighborhood. A sudden increase in dead rats in Chinese-American communities, possibly the result of ship-borne rats traveling up the sewers and infecting local rats.[28]

Rumors of the plague's presence abounded in the city, quickly gaining the notice of authorities from MHS stationed on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, including Chief Kinyoun.[29][30][31]

A Chinese-American named Chick Gin, Wing Chung Ging or Wong Chut King became the first official plague victim in California.[32][33][34] The 41-year-old man, born in China (San Francisco resident for 16 years) was a bachelor living in the basement of the Globe Hotel, in Chinatown, at the intersection of the streets, now called, Grant and Jackson.[35] The Globe Hotel was built in 1857, with the appearance of an Italian palazzo. However, by the mid-1870s it was a squalid tenement crowded with Chinese residents. Just outside, Jackson Street was the Chinese red-light district, where unmarried men could visit "hundred-men's-wives".[34]

On February 7, 1900, Wong Chut King, the owner of a lumber yard, fell sick with what the Chinese doctors thought was typhus or gonorrhea, the latter a sexually transmitted disease common to Chinatown's residents at that time.[5][33] After failed medications and no relief for his illness, he passed away in his bed after suffering for four weeks. In the morning, the body was taken to a Chinese undertaker where it was examined by San Francisco police surgeon, Frank P. Wilson, on March 6, 1900. Wilson called for A.P. O'Brien, a city health department officer, after finding suspiciously swollen lymph glands. Wilson and O'Brien then summoned Wilfred H. Kellogg, San Francisco's city bacteriologist, and the three men performed an autopsy as night closed. Looking through his microscope, Kellogg thought he saw plague bacilli.[23][36]

Late at night, Kellogg ran the suspicious samples of lymph fluid to Angel Island to be tested on animals in Kinyoun's better-equipped laboratory - an operation that would take at least four days. Meanwhile, Wilson and O'Brien called upon the city's Board of Health and insisted that Chinatown be quarantined immediately.[37] When dawn came on March 7, 1900, Chinatown was circled by rope and surrounded by policemen preventing egress or access to anyone but Whites. The 12-block area was bordered by four streets: Broadway, Kearney, California and Stockton. Approximately 25,000–35,000 residents were unable to leave.[38][39] Chinese Consul General Ho Yow felt that the quarantine was likely based on false assumptions and that it was entirely unfair to Chinese people and would seek an injunction to lift the quarantine.[40] San Francisco mayor James D. Phelan was in favor of keeping the Chinese-speaking residents separated from the Anglo-Americans - claiming that Chinese- Americans were unclean, filthy, and "a constant menace to the public health."[40] Nevertheless, the Board of Health lifted the quarantine on March 9 after it had been in force for only 2½ days. O'Brien said, by way of explanation, that "the general clamor had become too great to ignore".[40] The animals tested in Kinyoun's lab seemed to be in normal conditions after the first 48 hours of being exposed to the possible plague-causing agents. The lack of early response cast doubt on the theory that plague was the cause of Wong Chut King's death.[41]

The scientist who confirmed the existence of plague in California, Dr. Joseph J. Kinyoun alienated the local population and government with his autocratic manner. On March 11, Kinyoun's lab presented its results. Two guinea pigs and one rat died after being exposed to samples from the first victim, proving the plague was indeed in Chinatown.[40][42] Without restoring the quarantine, the Board of Health inspected every building in Chinatown, and labored to disinfect the neighborhood. Property was taken and burned if it was suspected of harboring filth. Using physical violence, policemen enforced compliance with the Board of Health's directives. Angry and worried Chinese communities reacted by hiding those that were sick.[43]

On March 13, another lab animal, a monkey, died, who was exposed to the plaque. All the dead animals tested positive for the plague bacteria.[44] U.S. Surgeon General Walter Wyman informed the San Francisco doctors at the end of March 1900 that his laboratory confirmed the fact that fleas can carry the plague and transmit it to a new host.[45]bitants isolated from the Anglo-Americans - guaranteeing that Chinese-Americans were unclean, smudged, and "a consistent hazard to the general population health."[40] Nevertheless, the Board of Health lifted the isolate on March 9 after it had been in compel for just 2½ days. O'Brien stated, by method for clarification, that "the general commotion had turned out to be excessively awesome, making it impossible to ignore".[40] The creatures tried in Kinyoun's lab appeared to be in ordinary conditions after the initial 48 hours of being presented to the conceivable torment causing operators. The absence of early reaction provide reason to feel ambiguous about the hypothesis that torment was the reason for Wong Chut King's death.[41]

The researcher who affirmed the presence of torment in California, Dr. Joseph J. Kinyoun estranged the neighborhood populace and government with his absolutist way.

On March 11, Kinyoun's lab displayed its outcomes. Two guinea pigs and one rodent passed on in the wake of being presented to tests from the main casualty, demonstrating the torment was to be sure in Chinatown.[40][42] Without reestablishing the isolate, the Board of Health reviewed each working in Chinatown, and toiled to purify the area. Property was taken and consumed in the event that it was associated with harboring rottenness. Utilizing physical viciousness, policemen authorized consistence with the Board of Health's mandates. Irate and stressed Chinese people group responded by concealing those that were sick.[43]

On March 13, another lab creature, a monkey, kicked the bucket, who was presented to the plaque. All the dead creatures tried positive for the torment bacteria.[44] U.S. Top health spokesperson Walter Wyman educated the San Francisco specialists toward the finish of March 1900 that his research facility affirmed the way that insects can convey the torment and transmit it to another host.[45]