General Idea
dal 25/6/2004 al 31/7/2004
Segnalato da
25/6/2004
General Idea
Galerie Frederic Giroux, Paris
1979-1994, prints, posters, books, multiples and editions. General Idea was a Canadian partnership of conceptual artists working as performance artists, video artists, photographers and sculptors. Influenced by semiotics and working in various media, they sought to examine and subvert social structures, taking particular interest in the products of mass culture. Their existence as a group, each with an assumed name, itself undermined the traditional notion of the solitary artist of genius
1979-1994, General Idea's prints, posters, books, multiples and editions.
General Idea. Canadian partnership of conceptual artists working as performance artists, video artists, photographers and sculptors. It was formed in 1968 by A. A. Bronson [pseud. of Michael Tims] (b Vancouver, 1946), Felix Partz [pseud. of Ron Gabe] (b Winnipeg, 1945) and Jorge Zontal [pseud. of Jorge Saia] (b Parma, Italy, 1944; d Feb 1994). Influenced by semiotics and working in various media, they sought to examine and subvert social structures, taking particular interest in the products of mass culture. Their existence as a group, each with an assumed name, itself undermined the traditional notion of the solitary artist of genius. In 1972 they began publishing a quarterly journal, File, to publicize their current interests and work, a publication, full of art and parody, which drew further attention when it prompted a lawsuit from the publishers of LIFE Magazine, who cleverly picked up on the mags' striking visual similarity. In the 1970s they concentrated on beauty parades, starting in 1970 with the 1970 Miss General Idea Pageant, a performance at the Festival of Underground Theatre in Toronto that mocked the clichés surrounding the beauty parade, resulting in the nomination of Miss General Idea 1970. This was followed by the 1971 Miss General Idea Pageant, which involved the submission by 13 artists of photographic entries that were exhibited and judged at The Space in Toronto.
Much of that changed when the AIDS crisis struck the gay and arts communities. General Idea produced profound and staggering installations about the epidemic and its effects. In 1987, they appropriated the famous "LOVE" painting of Robert Indiana and replaced those four letters with AIDS, for the now-famous logo that appeared on posters and campaigns around the world. In '91, their "One Day of AZT" displayed, in massive scale, the five pills that constituted the daily regimen of this medication. The stark piece was as thought-provoking as it was simple.
Typically, General Idea--their name is a nod to corporate nomenclature such as General Electric and General Motors--has created works that are decidedly ambiguous. Take "Fin de Siècle" (1990), in which three seals are set adrift on their own private ice flow. Some saw it as reflection of the isolation felt by the three artists; others saw it as an environmental statement.
General Idea was effectively struck down by AIDS itself, when two of its members, Zontal and Partz, died of the disease in '94.
Galerie Frederic Giroux
8 rue Charlot 75003 Paris France