Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Always to Return - Hardcover

by Felix Gonzalez-Torres (Artist), Teresita Fernández (Text by (Art/Photo Books)), Charlotte Ickes (Text by (Art/Photo Books))

Always to Return examines Felix Gonzalez-Torres's work in relation to portraiture and accompanies a major exhibition of the same name at the National Portrait Gallery and the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

This expansive project focuses on Felix Gonzalez-Torres's deep engagement with portraiture and the construction of identity, as well as how history is told and inherited. As one of the leading artists of the twentieth century, Gonzalez-Torres broadened the horizon of portraiture from a genre associated with static representations of individuals to one with the capacity to change, remain resonant, and encourage collaboration. With no formal beginning or end point, the exhibition and monograph unfold at the intersection of Gonzalez-Torres's groundbreaking work, the context of two Smithsonian collections, and the historically significant setting of Washington, D.C.

Always to Return is co-published with the National Portrait Gallery and the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Author Biography

Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1957-1996) was one of the most significant artists 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. Born in Cuba, the artist studied and lived in the U.S., ultimately dying from AIDS-related causes in 1996.

Josh T Franco (b. 1985) is collector at large at the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art. Prior to joining the Smithsonian, he was an artist-guide at Judd Foundation while completing his PhD in art history at Binghamton University, SUNY.

Charlotte Ickes (b. 1986) is the curator of time-based media art and special projects at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery. Prior to joining the Portrait Gallery, she was the Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow at MCA Chicago.

Julie Ault (b. 1957) is a New York-based artist, curator, and writer dedicated to activating and preserving overlooked cultural histories. She was a founding member of the artists' collaborative Group Material (1979-1996) of which Felix Gonzalez-Torres was an active member between 1988 and 1991. Ault edited Felix Gonzalez-Torres (Steidl Dangin, 2006), the first comprehensive monograph on the artist's work.

Joshua Chambers-Letson (b. 1980) is the Chair of Performance Studies and Professor of Performance Studies and Asian American Studies at Northwestern University. Completing a forthcoming book on queerness, grief, and love, he is also the author of After the Party: A Manifesto for Queer of Color and A Race So Different: Law and Performance in Asian America. With Tavia Nyong'o he is the editor of José Esteban Muñoz's The Sense of Brown and of Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's China Trilogy: Three Parables of Global Capital with Christine Mok. He lives in Chicago, Illinois.

Teresita Fernández (b. 1968) is a New York-based artist whose work is characterized by an interest in conceptual wayfinding and a rethinking of landscape. She is a 2005 MacArthur Foundation Fellow and the recipient of numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and an NEA Artist's Grant. Her works have been exhibited both nationally and internationally, at venues including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington; the Menil Collection, Houston; and Castello di Rivoli, Turin.