General Idea

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General Idea, Playing Doctor

General Idea was a collective of three Canadian artists, Felix Partz, Jorge Zontal and AA Bronson, who were active from 1969 to 1994, initially in Toronto; from 1986 through 1993 they divided their time between Toronto and New York before returning to Toronto for the last few months of their time together. Pioneers of conceptual and media-based art, their collaboration became a model for artist-initiated activities and a prominent influence on later generations of artists.

General Idea's work inhabited and subverted forms of popular and media culture, including beauty pageants, boutiques, television talk shows, trade fair pavilions and media. Their work was often presented in unconventional media forms such as postcards, prints, posters, wallpaper, balloons, crests and pins. From 1987 through 1994 their work addressed the AIDS crisis, with work that included some 75 temporary public art projects. Their major installation, One Year of AZT/One Day of AZT, was featured as a project at the Museum of Modern Art and now resides in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada. Most recently, the three giant inflatable pills from their 1991 work PLA©EBO were displayed during Toronto's 2006 Nuit blanche.

Retrospectives of General Idea's work toured Europe and North America in 1984-85 and again in 1992-93. More recently, a retrospective of all of General Idea's editions from 1968 through 1995 has toured North America and Europe, including the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, the Munich Kunstverein, Kunstwerke (Berlin), and the Kunsthalle Zurich. General Idea has been featured in the Paris, Sydney, Sao Paulo and Venice Biennales, as well as Documenta (1982).

Both Partz and Zontal died of AIDS in 1994. Bronson continues to work and exhibit as an independent artist, living and working in New York. The General Idea Archive now resides at the Library of the National Gallery of Canada.

Canadian musician Peaches recorded a song entitled "Felix Partz" on her album The Teaches of Peaches.