The Museum of Fine Arts is honored to present “Untitled” (L.A.) by artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres, on loan from Art Bridges and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

From the artist’s evocative candy spill series, this interactive work will be installed in the museum’s Great Hall, where its sparkling texture and unexpected material will juxtapose the neoclassical architecture of the space.

Gonzalez-Torres worked with everyday materials like clocks, candy, paper, and lightbulbs, to encourage a personal response from viewers. Although his titles and medium lists are very specific, he allows for his installations to change and fluctuate in accordance with the host venue and participants. The candy on view may be picked up, unwrapped, tasted, and consumed by museum viewers. The pile will gradually grow smaller, and the museum will replenish as needed to achieve the ideal weight of 50 pounds.

The meaning of the ideal weight of Gonzalez-Torres’s sculptures varies, and sometimes suggests a healthy body, for instance, or a group of bodies. In this case, the weight may reference the extreme weight loss of Gonzalez-Torres’s much-loved partner Ross Laycock (1959-1991), who died of AIDS-related causes the year this work was first made.

Gonzalez-Torres does not dictate meaning; viewers are invited to reflect on any number of sensations and memories as they take a piece of candy from the sculpture, an act that is rarely encouraged in a museum setting.