75 Reasons to Live: Meg Shiffler on Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s “Untitled” (America #1)

Meg Shiffler, director and curator of the San Francisco Arts Commission, on Felix Gonzalez-Torres' Untitled (America #1) (1992), the artist, his lover, and their lives cut short by AIDS. She notes that Torres spoke about “making works that are impermanent so that he himself could outlive them.“Remember the end of Manhattan, when Woody Allen asks himself what makes life worth living? In January 2010, during SFMOMA's three-day 75th anniversary celebration, 75 people from the Bay Area creative community gave extremely short talks — 7.5 minutes or less! — on a single collection work of their choosing. Someone called it “manic splendor“ — and it was. You can view all of the talks on The Anniversary Show exhibition page. Or look for them here, on Open Space.