January 31–April 15, 2016
General Idea Estate, in collaboration with Museo Jumex (Mexico City) and MALBA/Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires), announces the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the complete works of General Idea. Anticipating a publication date of January 2017, the catalogue documents unique works (paintings, sculptures, installations, multi-media projects, drawings and collages), edition works in multiple formats and an array of action, performance, film, video and audio works. This catalogue will accompany an exhibition curated by Agustín Pérez Rubio, artistic director of MALBA, which will be presented at Museo Jumex from October 27, 2016 to February 11, 2017 and then at MALBA from March to June 2017.
Collectors, museums, galleries and other institutions, who own or have owned unique works by the artist, and have not yet been reached, are invited to contribute to this comprehensive publication. All information is kept in strict confidence and requests for anonymity will be honored. Please address any information including photographs and documentation, before April 15, 2016, to:
Fern Bayer
General Idea Estate
131 Bloor Street West
Suite 200, P.O. Box 375
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M5S 1R8
T + (1) 416 921 6602 / generalideacatalog [at] gmail.com
General Idea formed in Toronto in 1969 and continued working until 1994. The group’s principles were AA Bronson (born Michael Tims, Vancouver, 1946), Felix Partz (born Ronald Gabe, Winnipeg, 1945–Toronto, 1994), Jorge Zontal (born Slobodan Saia-Levi, Parma, 1944–Toronto, 1994).
From the outset General Idea focused their creative energies on understanding pop culture, and were interested in how the artist, the creative process, the museum, the media and the audience interact to form culture. They conceived of their overall project as a total system, a parallel universe to the conventional art world, with its own unique vision of the role of the artist in contemporary culture, and the nature of artistic inspiration, creation and construction, dissemination and audience participation. General Idea pioneered the use of media that bypassed the normal gallery system to reconfigure social relationships. While their work includes paintings, sculptures and installations, it is also thoroughly marked by their interest in media of dissemination.
From 1970 to 1978 General Idea created performances and installations centered on the construct of the beauty pageant as a simulacrum and critique of the art world. In 1987 General Idea shifted its focus to the AIDS pandemic. Appropriating Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE painting, General Idea created their “AIDS” logo and began a publicity campaign for the previously unmentionable disease. Over the next 7 years they carried out over 50 temporary public art installations internationally.
Independent curator, researcher and art historian Fern Bayer has been working on General Idea since 1996. Bayer published a major study of their early work in The Search for the Spirit: General Idea 1968–1975 (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1997). She compiled the Finding Aid of the “General Idea fonds,” the artist’s vast archive housed in the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. She also contributed the research and entries for the edition-based works published in General Idea Editions: 1967–1995. Bayer continues to finalize the catalogue raisonné of General Idea’s complete body of production. To date she has documented nearly 2,000 works, each completed by full bibliographic references and exhibition history, including pivotal works from the artists’ pre-General Idea days.
The forthcoming catalogue is an integral part of the curatorial project lead by Agustín Pérez Rubio of MALBA in close collaboration with Museo Jumex in Mexico City, and with Bayer, AA Bronson, and the General Idea Estate. General Idea is represented by Esther Schipper, Berlin; Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich; and Maureen Paley, London.