New Collections: Felix Gonzalez-Torres letters to María Martínez-Cañas

This entry is part of an ongoing series highlighting new collections. The Archives of American Art collects primary source materials—original letters, writings, preliminary sketches, scrapbooks, photographs, financial records, and the like—that have significant research value for the study of art in the United States. The following essay was originally published in the Spring 2024 issue (vol. 63, no. 1) of the Archives of American Art Journal. More information about the journal can be found at https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/aaa/current.

“It was a real pleasure to meet you. I miss Miami Beach, miss the light, the ocean, the blue skies & all the palm trees.” So opens a circa 1988–89 postcard from Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1957–1996) to fellow artist María Martínez-Cañas (b. 1960). Accompanying the postcard in this collection is a handwritten letter on lined notebook paper and a snapshot picturing three cats cuddling on a seat cushion that has fallen from its perch to a white tile floor. Dating from 1988–1992, this three-item collection is the first donation made in response to the call for submissions to the Felix Gonzalez-Torres Correspondence Archive, a unique partnership between the Archives and the Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation that was launched in 2020.

Gonzalez-Torres had an ongoing practice of sending correspondence to a range of people, including friends, individuals from the art world (such as collectors and curators) with whom he both intimately and casually engaged, and family. The first donation to the Correspondence Archive comes from not only an artist peer, but one who, like Gonzalez-Torres, was born in Cuba and raised in Puerto Rico. The families of both Gonzalez-Torres and Martínez-Cañas eventually settled in Miami, and the artists shared a love of the city’s topography and culture. Gonzalez-Torres writes in the letter on notebook paper that is part of this collection, “Extraño la luz de Miami Beach, el olor a platano maduro frito, y el azul de la playa.” [“I miss the light of Miami Beach, the smell of fried ripe plantain, and the blue of the beach.”] The practice of listing is prevalent throughout Gonzalez-Torres’s letters, as well as his artwork. The artists’ correspondence thus presents an opportunity to engage with the idea of multiple simultaneous possibilities, which was intrinsic to Gonzalez-Torres’s thinking.

Other facets of Gonzalez-Torres’s character and practice emerge in this collection, including his thoughtful regard for fellow artists and his participation in the New York-based art collective Group Material (which the artist considered separate from his practice). On the reverse of the snapshot of cats, for example, he notifies Martínez-Cañas that Group Material is going on sabbatical. From 1987 to 1994 Gonzalez-Torres was a core member of the group, which often invited contributions from contemporaries, such as Martínez-Cañas. She had apparently sent some slides for Group Material’s consideration (the specific project is unspecified), and Gonzalez-Torres was kindly returning them so they could be reused. This gesture evokes a pre-digital world and the once common practice of distributing 35mm slides as work samples. It also prompts us to imagine how Martínez-Cañas’s art might have been incorporated into one of Group Material’s politically charged installations.

Though his life was cut short by AIDS-related causes, Gonzalez-Torres remains a powerful presence in the contemporary art world, where his work continues to be shown widely. As well as attesting to the wide network of friends, family, and colleagues he maintained in his lifetime, Gonzalez-Torres’s correspondence material is relevant in how it may add perspective to the artist’s work. This inaugural gift from Martínez-Cañas suggests a future where Gonzalez-Torres’s presence is equally ensured in the Archives.

Josh T. Franco is the head of collecting at the Archives of American Art.