Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Untitled: Canada: 1995

There are certain artists who come along with ideas that not only define, but also change their times. Warhol in the 60's . Beuys in the 70's. Koons for the 80's and this is where I get myself in trouble- Felix Gonzalez-Torres for the 90's. Yes, yes Damien Hirst is the monolithic art-star of that era but the aforementioned hall of fame is personal and idiosyncratic. The thing I love about Felix Gonzalez-Torres is that I grew up with his imagery in NYC yet had no idea who he was, in the same that Warhol, Beuys and Koons invaded and warped my consciousness before I even learnt to process the "cool images" as "art". That is the power of the greatest art. It confronts you at the strangest turn, even when you don't know its name. This is why I was so excited today at The Strand bookstore, when I found this legendary volume on Gonzalez-Torres, published by The Guggenheim Museum in 1995 on the occasion of his solo exhibition . It has long been out of print and was reissued by the Museum this year, when Gonzalez-Torres was chosen to represent the United States at the 2007 Venice Biennale.

It is not a big coffee table monograph of a book but a small, beautifully printed catalog with a gorgeous cover featuring a cut out b+w image much in keeping with the artists tradition of placing stacks of posters in a gallery for the public to take. (When the new MOMA opened I went every day for a week, just to get another "Death By Gun" poster. I was too polite to take a whole bunch at once) . Everything is here: the clusters of lightbulbs, the "empty bed" billboards one used to see in the West 20's on the way home from Sound Factory on a Sunday morning, said paper stacks and the candy spills. What a great mix of minimalism, conceptualism and political activity reflected via incredibly poetic imagery.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Guggenheim Museum