GENERAL IDEA EDITIONS 1967-1995
June 11
to August 9, 2003
Vernissage: Tuesday, June 10, 2003 at 5:30 p.m.
The Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery of Concordia University
is presenting GENERAL IDEA EDITIONS 1967-1995, featuring Canada’s
best-known and internationally renowned collaborative team
of artists – General Idea’s Jorge Zontal, AA Bronson,
and Felix Partz – who came to international attention
for their incisive interventions in the contemporary media
environment.
Pioneers of conceptual and media-based practices in Canada
from the late 1960s, General Idea’s 25-year collaboration
became a model for artist-initiated activities and successive
waves of younger generations of artists. In particular, General
Idea perfected the principle of inhabiting the forms of popular
and media culture – such as the Beauty Pageant, the
store or Boutique, television talk shows, trade fair Pavilions,
famous icons, and even LIFE Magazine – and of bending
these to their own needs.
Essential to this undertaking has been the design and fabrication
of mass-produced works, including such unconventional mediums
for art as postcards, prints, posters, as well as wallpaper,
balloons, crests and pins. Rather than just a commercial product,
secondary or even subordinated manifestations of more important
original works, General Idea editions form an important aspect
of the complete work and of the group’s broader artistic
concepts, such as the notion of the image as virus, and the
devaluation of notions of originality, copy-right and artistic
genius. The editions provide a glimpse of the development
of artist-initiated networks, and they are key to an understanding
of General Idea’s ironic and critical analysis of the
art business, the gallery as a commercial enterprise, and
of the role of the media. While two of its members –
Jorge Zontal and Felix Partz – passed away in 1994 due
to AIDS-related causes, General Idea’s work continues
to be acutely relevant for the imaginative formation of alternative
communities, articulations of queer identity, and the question
of agency in contemporary consumer culture.
Curated by Barbara Fischer, Director/Curator at the Blackwood
Gallery, University of Toronto at Mississauga, this exhibition
is the first comprehensive show of General Idea’s editions
available to a national and international audience. The exhibition
received generous financial assistance of the Ontario Arts
Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Andy Warhol
Foundation (New York). The circulation of the exhibition is
made possible by a grant from the Museums Assistance Program
of the Canadian Department of Heritage. An illustrated catalogue
raisonné accompanies the exhibition.
The Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery gratefully acknowledges
the assistance of The Canada Council for the Arts, Assistance
to Art Museums and Public Galleries.
Vernissage: Tuesday, June 10, 2003 at 5:30 p.m.
Exhibition dates: June 11 – August 9, 2003
Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 12:00 - 18:00
1400, boul. de Maisonneuve ouest, J.W. McConnell Library Building.
free admission – wheelchair accessible
information: (514) 848-4750
