"Untitled" (Portrait of Dad)

Cuban-born Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1957–96) created “Untitled “(Portrait of Dad) in 1991 as a meditation on loss, memory, and impermanence. The work consists of a pile of individually wrapped white mint sweets arranged in a rectangle, referring to the figure of his late father. Weighing ideally 175 lb—the average weight of an adult man—the work invites viewers to take a fragment if they wish. As the sweets disappears, the work evokes both the absence of the loved one and the passage of time.
With no fixed form, each manifestation of the work takes on a new shape, reflecting the instability of memory and the possibility of infinite renewal. Felix Gonzalez-Torres raises the following questions: how do we carry loss, and can an artwork—like a life—be shared, replenished, and remade without ceasing to exist?