General Idea Art
General Idea was commissioned by the Toronto Stock Exchange to install a work/mural. Shortly after the TSX published two prints, a lithograph poster and a limited edition print. However, most of the edition was destroyed/thrown away, when they moved from the trading floor at the TD Centre to their offices. As a result, the work has almost achieved mythological status amongst General Idea collectors.
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Artist: General Idea
Dealer: Caviar20
AIDS
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over the course of 25 years, they made a significant cont...
Category
1980s Conceptual General Idea Art
Materials
Screen
Copyright
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over 25 years, they made a significant contribution to po...
Category
1980s Conceptual General Idea Art
Materials
Mixed Media
For F From F
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over the course of 25 years, they made a significant cont...
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1970s Conceptual General Idea Art
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Polaroid
Le Fin
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over the course of 25 years, they made a significant cont...
Category
1980s Conceptual General Idea Art
Materials
Textile
Nova
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over 25 years, they made a significant contribution to po...
Category
1970s Conceptual General Idea Art
Materials
Graphite
Ouroboros
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over the course of 25 years, they made a significant contribution to postmodern and conceptual art in Canada and beyond.
General Idea was both prolific and multi-disciplinary long before it became de rigueur. Together, they worked across photography, sculpture, painting, mail art, video, installation, multiples, and performance. The group also made a significant number of unconventional editioned works and was inspired by the idea of the anti-art object.
Thematic continuity was a key element in General Idea's work. Early on they introduced talismans or logos that they would revisit and re-envision, including skulls, ziggurats, and poodles.
They were particularly interested in (European) crests used for centuries to represent a city, district, or even a creative or professional guild. General Idea both appropriated and reinterpreted existing crests (often by replacing a lion with a poodle) as well as creating crests that were entirely of their own imagination.
Between 1988 and 1989, General Idea created 8 chenille crests with some of their most iconic motifs. These crests recalled their traditional European antecedents and the aesthetics of high-school sports teams and varsity jackets.
"Ouroboros" features General Idea's most famous mascot, the poodle, who mimics the lion's pose often seen in traditional European iconography. Entangled in the twists and curls of its tail, the poodle appears to be consuming the tip of it, embodying the full 'ouroboros' or circle of life.
Completed in a menacing palette of black, forest green, and electric red, this design is a classic General Idea; subversive, zany, and mischievous.
While these crests were intended to be an unlimited edition, according to the General Idea Editions catalog raisonné, less than 100...
Category
1980s Conceptual General Idea Art
Materials
Textile
Ghent Scarf
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
General Idea formed in 1967 in Toronto and over the next nearly 30 years, the trio made a remarkable contribution to post-modern art.
With their subversive approach and interest in...
Category
1980s Conceptual General Idea Art
Materials
Nylon, Screen
When Fur Flies
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over the course of 25 years, they made a significant contribution to postmodern and conceptual art in Canada and beyond.
General Idea was both prolific and multi-disciplinary long before it became de rigueur. Together, they worked across photography, sculpture, painting, mail art, video, installation, multiples, and performance. The group also made a significant number of unconventional editioned works and were inspired by the idea of the anti-art object.
Thematic continuity was a key element in General Idea's work. Early on they introduced talismans or logos that they would revisit and re-envision, including skulls, ziggurats, and poodles.
They were particularly interested in (European) crests used for centuries to represent a city, district, or even a creative or professional guild. General Idea both appropriated and reinterpreted existing crests (often by replacing a lion with a poodle) as well as creating crests that were entirely of their own imagination.
Between 1988 and 1989, General Idea created 8 chenille crests with some of their most iconic motifs. These crests recalled their traditional European antecedents and the aesthetics of high-school sports teams and varsity jackets.
"When the Fur Flies" is the most colorful and curious example from the series. A pink poodle, which appears almost as a curly abstraction, mimics the lion's pose often seen in traditional European iconography. Behind the famous General Idea mascot are stylized three yellow mushroom clouds. This design is a classic General Idea; subversive, zany, queer, and mischievous.
While these crests were intended to be an unlimited edition, according to the General Idea Editions catalog raisonné, less than 100...
Category
1980s Conceptual General Idea Art
Materials
Textile
Nine Lives
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over the course of 25 years, they made a significant cont...
Category
1980s Post-Modern General Idea Art
Materials
Screen
Passion Over Reason
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over 25 years, they made a significant contribution to postmodern and conceptual art in Canada and beyond.
The group was both prolific and multi-disciplinary long before it became de rigueur. They use photography, sculpture, painting, mail art, video, installation, multiples, and performance.
With their subversive approach and interest in parody and appropriation, General Idea addressed a broad range of social (and art-world) issues such as the cult of the artist, mass media, queer identity, and consumerism.
Thematic continuity was a key element in General Idea's work. Early on they introduced talismans or logos that they would revisit and re-envision, including skulls, ziggurats, and poodles.
This print comes from "Fear Management": a set of 8 prints...
Category
1980s Post-Modern General Idea Art
Materials
Screen
Down the Drink
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over the course of 25 years, they made a significant contribution to postmodern and conceptual art in Canada and beyond.
The group was both prolific and multi-disciplinary long before it became de rigueur. They with photography, sculpture, painting, mail art, video, installation, multiples, and performance. While the medium frequently changed, General Idea early introduced talismans or logos that they would revisit and re-envision, including skulls, ziggurats, and poodles.
(The EyeEye crest, for example, reappears in 1993 as a benefit print for the International Festival of Authors)
This print comes from "Fear Management": a set of 8 prints...
Category
1980s Post-Modern General Idea Art
Materials
Screen
Placebo Prototype
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over the course of 25 years, they made a significant cont...
Category
1990s Post-Modern General Idea Art
Materials
Wood, Acrylic
ABCs
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over the course of 25 years, they made a significant cont...
Category
1980s Post-Modern General Idea Art
Materials
Metal
Dr. Brute's Shield
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over the course of 25 years, they made a significant cont...
Category
1980s Post-Modern General Idea Art
Materials
Screen
EYEYEYE
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over the course of 25 years, they made a significant contribution to postmodern and conceptual art in Canada and beyond.
The group was both prolific and multi-disciplinary long before it became de rigueur. They with photography, sculpture, painting, mail art, video, installation, multiples, and performance. While the medium frequently changed, General Idea early introduced talismans or logos that they would revisit and re-envision, including skulls, ziggurats, and poodles.
(The EyeEye crest, for example, reappears in 1993 as a benefit print for the International Festival of Authors)
This print comes from "Fear Management": a set of 8 prints...
Category
1980s Post-Modern General Idea Art
Materials
Screen
The Hand of the Spirit of Miss General Idea
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over the course of 25 years, they made a significant contribution to postmodern and conceptual art in Canada and beyond.
The group was both prolific and multi-disciplinary long before it became de rigueur. They with photography, sculpture, painting, mail art, video, installation, multiples, and performance.
With their subversive approach and interest in parody and appropriation, General Idea addressed a broad range of social (and art-world) issues such as the cult of the artist, mass media, queer identity, and consumerism.
Thematic continuity was a key element in General Idea's work. Early on they introduced talismans or logos that they would revisit and re-envision, including skulls, ziggurats, and poodles. Perhaps one of the earliest of these icons is the pinching hand, or "Hand of the Spirit" which debuts around 1972 and appears frequently throughout the decade.
Centered on a hand-painted background, "The Hand of the Spirit of Miss General Idea" features a vibrant crest that displays a hand with fingers curled in a mystical gesture.
This print comes from "Fear Management": a set of 8 prints...
Category
1980s Post-Modern General Idea Art
Materials
Screen
East Wall
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over 25 years, they made a significant contribution to po...
Category
1980s Post-Modern General Idea Art
Materials
Gold Leaf
The 1971 Miss General Idea Pageant
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over the course of four decades, they made a significant ...
Category
1970s Post-Modern General Idea Art
Materials
Screen
Cornucopia
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over the course of 25 years, they made a significant contribution to postmodern and conceptual art in Canada and beyond.
The group was both prolific and multi-disciplinary long before it became de rigueur. They use photography, sculpture, painting, mail art, video, installation, multiples, and performance.
With their subversive approach and interest in parody and appropriation, General Idea addressed a broad range of social (and art-world) issues such as the cult of the artist, mass media, queer identity, and consumerism.
Thematic continuity was a key element in General Idea's work. Early on they introduced talismans or logos that they would revisit and re-envision, including skulls, ziggurats, and poodles.
This print comes from "Fear Management": a set of 8 prints...
Category
1980s Post-Modern General Idea Art
Materials
Screen
The Honeymoon is Over
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over the course of 25 years, they made a significant contribution to postmodern and conceptual art in Canada and beyond.
The group was both prolific and multi-disciplinary long before it became de rigueur. They with photography, sculpture, painting, mail art, video, installation, multiples, and performance.
With their subversive approach and interest in parody and appropriation, General Idea addressed a broad range of social (and art-world) issues such as the cult of the artist, mass media, queer identity, and consumerism.
Thematic continuity was a key element in General Idea's work. Early on they introduced talismans or logos that they would revisit and re-envision, including skulls, ziggurats, and poodles.
This print comes from "Fear Management": a set of 8 prints that celebrates some of General Idea's defining and most beloved motifs by situating them on a crest. This showcases their clever blend of historical fantasy and invented patrimony.
Many of these self-mythologizing crests debuted in 1986 during their exhibition at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo entitled: The Armoury of the 1984 Miss General Idea Pavillion.
This series is a defining example of one of General Idea's most iconic motifs, the crest, which showcases their clever blend of historical fantasy and invented patrimony.
Centered on a handpainted background, "The Honeymoon...
Category
1980s Post-Modern General Idea Art
Materials
Screen
Coeur Volant
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over the course of 25 years, they made a significant cont...
Category
1990s Post-Modern General Idea Art
Materials
Wax, Acrylic, Fiberboard
Pavillion Fragment
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over the course of 25 years, they made a significant cont...
Category
1980s Post-Modern General Idea Art
Materials
Plaster
Capsule
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over the course of 25 years, they made a significant cont...
Category
1990s Post-Modern General Idea Art
Materials
Paint, Paper, Silk
Monet Cane
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
General Idea was founded in 1967 in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over the course of 25 years, they made a significant contribution to postmodern and conceptual art in Canada and beyond.
The trio was both prolific and multi-disciplinary long before it became de rigueur. They worked across a wide range of media including photography, sculpture, painting, mail art, video, installations, multiples, and performance.
With their subversive approach and interest in parody and appropriation, General Idea addressed a broad range of social (and art-world) issues such as the cult of the artist, mass media, queer identity, and consumerism.
Thematic continuity was a key element for General Idea, who utilized longevity as an avenue to delve deeper into, build upon, and evolve with the complex and nuanced subject matter they took on.
“Monet Cane” is an extraordinary example of General Idea’s use of iconography, appropriation, (and mischief) from this era. Beginning in the early 1980s, General Idea began using the poodle as an emblem for the trio, quickly elevating it to one of the most dominant motifs in their practice. Both single poodles, and trios (which would be a sort of group self-portrait) appeared frequently in a variety of artwork during their last decade of production.
The 80's was a decade that saw appropriation flourish in the visual arts. General Idea made a significant contribution to this trend. While many of their contemporaries used mass-market images or objects (think Barbara Kruger, Jeff Koons, and Richard Prince) General Idea did not restrict themselves to accessible imagery but also claimed canonical images and blue-chip references.
General Idea created two major series of paintings featuring the trio of poodles; in pastels (which were often bleached in a commercial washing machine) and in neon colors.
This painting is exceptionally rare as it is one of four paintings made with this distinct flecked surface. This unique texture is a significant (and beautiful) anomaly at odds with their predominantly flat and graphic aesthetic.
The surface of the canvas is enveloped in tiny, weighted flecks of paint that have been layered to create an incredible texture. This application of paint, which appears to be chenille-like, recalls both the atmospheric pastel palette and impressionistic effects made famous by Claude Monet.
"Monet Cane" can not only be contextualized with other poodle paintings...
Category
1980s Pop Art General Idea Art
Materials
Mixed Media
Infected Coeur Volant
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over the course of 25 years, they made a significant cont...
Category
1990s Pop Art General Idea Art
Materials
Wax, Acrylic, Fiberboard
Nine Lives
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
General Idea was founded in 1967 in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over the course of 25 years, they made a significant contr...
Category
1990s Modern General Idea Art
Materials
Nylon, Screen
Monet Cane
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
General Idea was formed in 1967 in Toronto and over the next nearly 30 years, the trio made a remarkable contribution to post-modern art.
With their subversive approach and intere...
Category
1980s Conceptual General Idea Art
Materials
Mixed Media
Hot Property!
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
General Idea was formed in 1967 as a collective of three Canadian artists in Toronto, Felix Partz, Jorge Zontal and AA Bronson. Over the next 30 years, the ...
Category
1970s Conceptual General Idea Art
Materials
Screen, Paper
General Idea "Ursa Major and Taurus"
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
General Idea formed in 1967 in Toronto and over the next nearly 30 years made a remarkable contribution to post-modern art.
Their body of work combines provocative or banal imagery with wit and irony, creating subversive cultural critiques on a wide range of topics from the role of the artist in society to the AIDS crisis.
Two of the members, Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal died of AIDS in 1994. Its surviving member, AA Bronson...
Category
1980s Post-Modern General Idea Art
Materials
Color
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Lucre
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over the course of 25 years, they made a significant contribution to postmodern and conceptual art in Canada and beyond.
General Idea was both prolific and multi-disciplinary long before it became de rigueur. Together, they worked across photography, sculpture, painting, mail art, video, installation, multiples, and performance. The group also made a significant number of unconventional editioned works and was inspired by the idea of the anti-art object.
Thematic continuity was a key element in General Idea's work. Early on they introduced talismans or logos that they would revisit and re-envision, including skulls, ziggurats, and poodles.
They were particularly interested in (European) crests used for centuries to represent a city, district, or even a creative or professional guild. General Idea both appropriated and reinterpreted existing crests (often by replacing a lion with a poodle) as well as creating crests that were entirely of their own imagination.
Between 1988 and 1989, General Idea created 8 chenille crests with some of their most iconic motifs. These crests recalled their traditional European antecedents and the aesthetics of high-school sports teams and varsity jackets.
"Lucre" features a trio of stylized dollar signs completed in a palette of crimson red, black, and white. It is possible that the dollar signs are personified in what seems to be a pseudo self-portrait, a recurring trope throughout General Idea's oeuvre that envisions the trio in campy, cartoonish, or absurd renditions of group self-portraits.
While these crests were intended to be an unlimited edition, according to the General Idea Editions catalog raisonné, less than 100...
Category
1980s Conceptual General Idea Art
Materials
Textile
Eye of the Beholder
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over the course of 25 years, they made a significant contribution to postmodern and conceptual art in Canada and beyond.
General Idea was both prolific and multi-disciplinary long before it became de rigueur. Together, they worked across photography, sculpture, painting, mail art, video, installation, multiples, and performance. The group also made a significant number of unconventional editioned works and was inspired by the idea of the anti-art object.
Thematic continuity was a key element in General Idea's work. Early on they introduced talismans or logos that they would revisit and re-envision, including skulls, ziggurats, and poodles. This work, with it's stylized cartoon skull (with copyright symbol eyes) is one of these logos or mascots that make several appearances in their oeuvre. Click here to see another example of this skull.
General Idea was particularly interested in (European) crests used for centuries to represent a city, district, or even a creative or professional guild. They both appropriated and reinterpreted existing crests in addition to creating ones entirely of their own imagination.
Between 1988 and 1989, General Idea produced 8 chenille crests with some of their most iconic motifs. These crests recalled their traditional European antecedents and the aesthetics of high-school sports teams and varsity jackets.
"Eye of the Beholder" features a single stylized skull completed in General Idea's signature palette of crimson red, black, and white. The skull motif epitomizes their campy, cartoonish, or absurd emblems.
While these crests were intended to be an unlimited edition, according to the General Idea Editions catalog raisonné, less than 100...
Category
1980s Conceptual General Idea Art
Materials
Textile
Phoenix with a P
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over the course of 25 years, they made a significant contribution to postmodern and conceptual art in Canada and beyond.
General Idea was both prolific and multi-disciplinary long before it became de rigueur. Together, they worked across photography, sculpture, painting, mail art, video, installation, multiples, and performance. The group also made a significant number of unconventional editioned works and was inspired by the idea of the anti-art object.
Thematic continuity was a key element in General Idea's work. Early on they introduced talismans or logos that they would revisit and re-envision, including skulls, ziggurats, and poodles.
They were particularly interested in (European) crests used for centuries to represent a city, district, or even a creative or professional guild. General Idea both appropriated and reinterpreted existing crests (often by replacing a lion with a poodle) as well as creating crests that were entirely of their own imagination.
Between 1988 and 1989, General Idea created 8 chenille crests with some of their most iconic motifs. These crests recalled their traditional European antecedents and the aesthetics of high-school sports teams and varsity jackets.
In this variation of the mythological phoenix, a poodle with fierce claws and a dragon's fire breath emerges from stylized flames that mirror the animal's fur. This blend of camp, kitsch, and historical iconography epitomizes General Idea.
While these crests were intended to be an unlimited edition, according to the General Idea Editions catalog raisonné, less than 100...
Category
1980s Conceptual General Idea Art
Materials
Textile
Post Mortem
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over the course of 25 years, they made a significant contribution to postmodern and conceptual art in Canada and beyond.
General Idea was both prolific and multi-disciplinary long before it became de rigueur. Together, they worked across photography, sculpture, painting, mail art, video, installation, multiples, and performance. The group also made a significant number of unconventional editioned works and was inspired by the idea of the anti-art object.
Thematic continuity was a key element in General Idea's work. Early on they introduced talismans or logos that they would revisit and re-envision, including skulls, ziggurats, and poodles.
They were particularly interested in (European) crests used for centuries to represent a city, district, or even a creative or professional guild. General Idea both appropriated and reinterpreted existing crests (often by replacing a lion with a poodle) as well as creating crests that were entirely of their own imagination.
Between 1988 and 1989, General Idea created 8 chenille crests with some of their most iconic motifs. These crests recalled their traditional European antecedents and the aesthetics of high-school sports teams and varsity jackets.
"Post Mortem" features a trio of stylized skulls completed in an alternating palette of saffron, crimson red, and black. The triple skull motif recurs throughout their oeuvre and stands as an iconic example of their campy, cartoonish, or absurd renditions of group self-portraits.
While these crests were intended to be an unlimited edition, according to the General Idea Editions catalog raisonné, less than 100...
Category
1980s Conceptual General Idea Art
Materials
Textile
Orgasm Renewal Project
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over the course of 25 years, they made a significant cont...
Category
1970s Post-Modern General Idea Art
Materials
Paper
Phoenix with a P
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over the course of 25 years, they made a significant cont...
Category
1980s Post-Modern General Idea Art
Materials
Screen
"Mondo Cane Kama Sutra" Canada 1983, printed 2001, Serigraph on wove paper
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
General Idea was formed in 1967 and is one of Canada's best-known artists on the international stage. Two of the members, Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal die...
Category
1980s Conceptual General Idea Art
Materials
Screen
A Poodle Creates a Portrait of General Idea as Three Pee Holes in the Snow
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
General Idea was formed in 1967 in Toronto and over the next nearly 30 years, the trio made a remarkable contribution to post-modern art.
With their subversive approach and interest in parody and appropriation, General Idea addressed a broad range of social and art-world issues including consumerism, media consumption, the cult of the artist, and AIDS.
General Idea was both prolific and multi-disciplinary (way before it became de rigueur) creating works in a wide range of media including photography, sculpture, painting, mail art, video, performances, installations, and (perhaps most notably) artist multiples.
The poodle is one of the defining icons in General Idea’s oeuvre, signifying a multitude of meanings. Like many works in their oeuvre the poodle is both cute and subversive. While General Idea had used the poodle motif since the early 1970’s, in this iteration it becomes graphic, stylized, and vaguely robotic.
GI's dedication to creating multiples was tied to their critical exploration of consumerism and art collecting/shopping. AA Bronson...
Category
1980s Conceptual General Idea Art
Materials
Gold
Artist's Conception; Miss General Idea Pageant 1971
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
General Idea was formed in Toronto in 1967 as a collective of three artists; Felix Partz, Jorge Zontal, and AA Bronson. Over the next 30 years, the trio mad...
Category
1970s Conceptual General Idea Art
Materials
Screen
Fin de Siecle
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Rich in allegory and irony, General Idea's "Fin de Siècle" presents many of the best conceptual and aesthetic characteristics of their output.
Who isn...
Category
1990s Conceptual General Idea Art
Materials
Photographic Paper
General Idea "Armoury/ Pavilion"
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
General Idea formed in 1969 in Toronto and over the next 30 some years, the trio made a remarkable and inimitable contribution to post-modern art.
With ...
Category
1980s Post-Modern General Idea Art
Materials
Color
General Idea art for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic General Idea art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by General Idea in screen print, paint, paper and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the Pop Art style. Not every interior allows for large General Idea art, so small editions measuring 3 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Francois Batet, Ivan Rabuzin, and Niklaus Troxler. General Idea art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $540 and tops out at $165,000, while the average work can sell for $3,600.