"Untitled" (America #1) 1992

Felix Gonzalez-Torres made this "Untitled" string of lights, around the time of his partner's death from AIDS. The art object, the string of lights, is a metaphor for life, and for the fragility of life in particular. Gonzalez-Torres was working in the United States during the late 1980s and early 1990s, amidst the AIDS crisis, and also a conservative backlash against queer rights. His work reflects these political, economic, and cultural forces, often critiquing the institutions of art, and their complicity within conservative social norms. The string of lights is both beautiful and fragile, and it comments on the beauty and fragility of life. Like the earlier work of the conceptual artists, the piece relies on institutional settings for its display. To understand this piece better, historians might study queer theory, as well as the history of AIDS activism, and the history of censorship in the arts. The meaning of art is always contingent on its social and institutional context.