Roni Horn’s Gold Field (1980–82), two pounds of pure gold compressed into a luminous rectangular mat.
In 1990 during Horn’s solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Gonzalez-Torres encountered her sculpture Forms from the Gold Field (1980–82), two pounds of pure gold compressed into a luminous rectangular mat. Set directly on the floor in an otherwise empty gallery, the work threatens to dissolve into dazzling immateriality, the sense of pure surface that its delicacy invokes. Impressed by its radical simplicity and emotive capabilities, Gonzalez-Torres shared his memory of the work with Horn when they met in 1993. A few days later, she sent him a square of gold foil as a symbol of their newfound friendship and shared sensibilities. He was so inspired by her gesture and the expansiveness of her subtle work that he fashioned his own “gold field” in her honor ...
So far, this is my favorite thing I have seen in New York.
See also:
Post title excerpted from '1990: L.A., The Gold Field' by Felix Gonzalez-Torres in Earths Grow Thick, Wexner Center for the Arts Roni Horn exhibition catalogue, 1996.
