Felix Gonzalez-Torres - 20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Afternoon Session New York Tuesday, May 16, 2023 | Phillips
  • “... there were puzzles of sections of love letters Ross had sent Felix, photographed by Felix after Ross had died, knowing he would never allow himself to read them again, trying to preserve them, concretize them, make sense of them in a new way.”
    —Dietmar Elger

    • Provenance

      Hauser & Wirth
      Acquired from the above by the present owner

    • Exhibited

      Berlin, Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst, Übers Sofa – Auf die Straße! Kunst und schwule Kultur im Aids-Zeitalter – Vier Künstler aus New York: David Wojnarowicz, Donald Moffett, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, John Lindell, February 24–March 30, 1990 (another example exhibited)
      New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Articulations: Forms of Language in Contemporary Art, May 13–June 30, 1995, p. 28 (another example exhibited)
      Stamford, Whitney Museum of American Art at Champion, As Time Goes By: History, Memory, and Sentimentality, June 6–August 20, 1997, p. 26 (another example exhibited)
      New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Shared Vision: Photographs from the Collection of Emily Fisher Landau and Anne E. and M. Anthony Fisher, October 31, 1998–November 15, 1999 (another example exhibited)
      San Francisco, Logan Galleries, California College of Arts and Crafts, To Whom It May Concern, September 5–October 26, 2002 (another example exhibited)
      Altkirch, Centre Rhénan d'Art Contemporain Alsace (CRAC); Vigo, Museo de Arte Contemporánea (MARCO); Bangkok, TADU Contemporary Arts Center; Bangkok, PSG Art Gallery; Bangkok, 100 Tonson Gallery; Hasselt, Kunstencentrum Z33; Utrecht, Centraal Museum, Le Temps Suspendu [The Suspended Moment]: H & F Collection, June 15, 2005–October 28, 2007, p. 25 (another example exhibited and illustrated, pp. 26–28)
      Berlin, Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum für Gegenwart, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, October 1, 2006–January 9, 2007, pp. 39, 209 (another example exhibited and illustrated, p. 39)
      New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Paper, May 19, 2007–January 14, 2008 (another example exhibited)
      Barcelona, Fundación Foto Colectania; Centro Cultural Bancaja de Alicante, Las partes y el todo: Colección H+F, October 29, 2007–September 28, 2008, pp. 113, 115 (another example exhibited and illustrated, pp. 92–92)
      Buenos Aires, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA) - Colección Constantini, Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Somewhere/Nowhere, September 5–November 3, 2008, pp. 51, 92 (another example exhibited and illustrated, p. 50)
      New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Five Decades of Passion Part Two: The Founding of the Center, 1989–1991, November 5, 2009–March 29, 2010 (another example exhibited)
      Lille, Espace Le Carré, Pilot Light, February 4–March 21, 2010 (another example exhibited)
      New York, The Whitney Museum of American Art, Legacy: The Emily Fisher Landau Collection, February 10–May 1, 2011, pp. 100, 319 (another example exhibited and illustrated, p. 101)
      New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Legacy: Selections from Emily Fisher Landau’s Gift to The Whitney Museum of American Art, June 12–October 9, 2011 (another example exhibited)
      San Jose Museum of Art, Legacy: The Emily Fisher Landau Collection, June 5–September 14, 2014 (another example exhibited)
      New York, The Whitney Museum of American Art, America is Hard to See, May 1–September 27, 2015 (another example exhibited)
      Shanghai, Rockbund Art Museum, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, September 30–December 25, 2016, n.p. (another example exhibited)
      Montpellier Contemporain, Intimate Distance, June 29–September 30, 2019, pp. 96, 170 (another example exhibited and illustrated, p. 97)

    • Literature

      Felix Gonzalez-Torres, exh. cat., Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1995
      Felix Gonzalez-Torres, exh. cat., Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1996, pp. 131, 222 (another example illustrated, p. 131)
      Dietmar Elger, ed., Felix Gonzalez-Torres, exh. cat. and catalogue raisonné, Ostfildern, 1997, no. 35, vol. I, pp. 31, 50; vol. II, p. 31 (another example illustrated, vol. II)
      Miriam Katzeff, Thomas Lawson and Susan Morgan, eds., REAL LIFE Magazine: Selected Writings and Projects, 1979–1994, New York, 2006, p. 272–273, 282 (another example illustrated)

Property from an Esteemed Collection

350

"Untitled" (Love Letter From The War Front)

signed "Felix Gonzalez-Torres" on a label affixed to the reverse
chromogenic print jigsaw puzzle in plastic bag
7 1/2 x 9 1/2 in. (19.1 x 24.1 cm)
Executed in 1988, this work is number 1 from an edition of 3 plus 1 artist's proof.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$100,000 - 150,000 

Sold for $101,600

Contact Specialist

Patrizia Koenig
Specialist, Head of Sale, Afternoon Session
+1 212 940 1279
pkoenig@phillips.com

20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Afternoon Session

New York Auction 16 May 2023