Honoring Late Superstar In Venice Harms Living Artists

“Felix Gonzalez-Torres, who died of AIDS-related complications at 38 in 1996, is the second American to be posthumously represented in the high-profile American pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Unfortunately, the show mostly represents a lost opportunity for any of scores of living American artists,” Christopher Knight writes. A superstar, Gonzalez-Torres “hardly needs Venice to secure his reputation. Other artists do.”