Comment | Felix Gonzalez-Torres's major survey in Madrid shows how his art was both stridently political and gently lyrical

A major Félix González-Torres survey titled “Sweet Revenge” is on view at Madrid’s Museo Reina Sofía through 12 October, revisiting the artist’s fraught connection to Spain after he arrived in Madrid from Cuba at age 13 in 1971. The exhibition opens with “Untitled” (Revenge) (1991), a candy work with an “ideal weight” of 325 lb (about 147 kg) of blue candies, installed in a rectangular carpet format and inviting visitors to take a piece. The show also references “Untitled” (Madrid 1971) (1988), a Puzzle work combining a childhood mugshot with an image of a rifle-bearing statue, and situates the artist’s “manifestable” works amid themes of politics, lyricism, and loss. The article notes that when “Untitled” (Revenge) was first shown in Madrid in 1991, González-Torres’s partner Ross Laycock was in the advanced stages of an AIDS-related illness that soon killed him.

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