Felix Gonzalez-Torres, a pivotal figure in the late 20th-century art scene, utilized his "Dateline" works to explore and blend the boundaries between public and private narratives, interweaving personal histories with global events. Starting in 1987 and continuing into the mid-1990s, Gonzalez-Torres developed these works by arranging text strings that listed a variety of elements, such as places, objects, dates, people, and events, in seemingly random sequences. This method allowed him to construct "language portraits" that were deeply personal to the subjects of the works, often the initial owners, who were asked to provide a list of significant moments in their lives. Gonzalez-Torres would then edit these lists, adding or removing items, and reorganizing them, blending these personal histories with broader historical narratives (The Metropolitan Museum of Art).
One poignant example, "Untitled" (Portrait of the Magoons) from 1993, encapsulates this approach by presenting a single line of text painted along the walls of a room, appearing like a frieze in metallic silver. This work exemplifies how Gonzalez-Torres saw identity as a composite of diverse influences, including personal experiences, historical events, and cultural shifts. He believed that we are all a product of various texts—literal and metaphorical—that come together to form our identities. By combining personal milestones with significant historical events, Gonzalez-Torres's Dateline works disrupt traditional narrative continuity and temporal linearity, offering a more fluid and multifaceted view of identity (The Metropolitan Museum of Art).
Crucially, Gonzalez-Torres endowed these works with the potential to be reinterpreted and remade by their owners, allowing for the addition, deletion, or rearrangement of elements within each "portrait." This approach not only democratized the ownership and interpretation of art but also underscored the mutable nature of identity itself. Each iteration of a Dateline work could take a different form, emphasizing the subjectivity and instability of how we understand ourselves and others. Through these pieces, Gonzalez-Torres invites viewers to engage with the artwork not merely as spectators but as active participants in the creation of meaning (The Metropolitan Museum of Art).
Felix Gonzalez-Torres's Dateline works represent a critical intervention in the discourse around art, identity, and history. By merging personal narratives with broader social and political events, Gonzalez-Torres challenges us to reconsider our notions of the self in relation to the world around us, highlighting the complex interplay of forces that shape individual and collective identities (David Zwirner).