Almost more interesting than the work itself is how it enabled the relationship between artists Roni Horn and Felix Gonzalez-Torres. The two pieces are, respectively, Forms From the Gold Field which later inspired Gonzalez-Torres to make “Untitled” (Placebo-Landscape-for Roni). He encountered Horn’s work at her solo show at the MoCA in Los Angeles a few years earlier and was impressed by its “radical simplicity and emotive capabilities.” The piece itself, 2 pounds of compressed gold, looks not unlike a gold foil welcome mat. When Gonzalez-Torres and Horn finally met they inevitably hit it off and “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 impressed by her gesture and the expansiveness of her subtle work that he fashioned his own “gold field” in her honor.” He continued to work with the color and created “Untitled” (Golden), a golden, beaded, floor to ceiling curtain through which you must pass in order to view its original inspiration, Forms From the Gold Field.

See them at The Guggenheim until January 6, 2010.