The Art of Romance
Happy Valentine's Day! In honor of this romantic day, we wanted to share two works from our new exhibition Figuring Color that celebrate love and sensuality. No chocolate is involved, but there is some candy.
Kathy Butterly
Like Butter, 1997
clay and glaze
Courtesy of the artist
Several of Kathy Butterly’s works in Figuring Color highlight her affinity to fleshy colors. Ranging in palette from warm peaches to cool pinks and sickly blushes, her objects are remarkably figurative, even within their abstraction. Like Butter (which makes punning reference to the artist’s surname) possesses what appear to be shapely hips and an enticing skirt. The work is defiantly seductive and overtly sexual—even quite naughty if the mind so inclines. Butterly made this piece early in her relationship with her husband, and it expresses the passion and sensuality of those heady days of romance.
Felix Gonzalez-Torres
“Untitled” (Lover Boys), 1991
candies in clear cellophane
Glenstone
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Gonzalez-Torres said that “if a beautiful memory could have a color, that color would be light blue.” “Untitled” (Lover Boys) (1991) is a sculpture composed of hundreds of white and blue candies poured onto the gallery floor. This generous and joyful pile of candy is something of a dual portrait of the artist and his life-partner Ross Laycock, who died of AIDS-related illnesses. Ideally, it weighs 355 pounds––the approximate combined weight of the two men.To see the sculpture, however, is to touch it. By putting a piece of candy in your mouth and ingesting it, you are completing the artist’s intention to share something sweet.