Nazi Milk, 1979-1990
Chromogenic print (Ektachrome): 76.2 x 53.3 cm
Courtesy the Estate of General Idea

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Untitled (Marlboro), 1985-1986
Acrylic, pasta on canvas, 121,9 x 101,6 cm
Courtesy the Estate of General Idea

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Post Mortem, 1985
Acrylic, fluorescent acrylic, metallic enamel on wood,
152. 4 x 122 x 3.2 cm
Component of the installation, The Armoury of the 1984
Miss General Idea Pavillion, 1985-1990
Courtesy the Estate of General Idea

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AIDS, 1987
Acrylic on canvas, 183 x 183 cm
Courtesy the Estate of General Idea / BFAS Blondeau Fine Art Services, Genève
Photo Zindman / Fremont

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Mondo Cane Kama Sutra, 1984
Set of 10, acrylic on canvas, each 245 x 305 cm
Courtesy the Estate of General Idea / Galerie Frédéric
Giroux, Paris / Galerie mai 36, Zürich / Galerie Esther Schipper, Berlin
Photo STEFAN ALTENBURGER

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P is for Poodle, 1983
Chromogenic print (Ektachrome), 76.2 x 63.5 cm
Courtesy the Estate of General Idea / Galerie Frédéric Giroux, Paris

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Shut The Fuck Up, part I (Death of a Mauve Bat) & II (Mondo Cane). 1984
14 min, color, sound. Distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix

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Untitled (Sandy Stagg Models The Miss General Idea Shoe and the Hand of the Spirit against the backdrop of Luxon V.B.)
1973-1974 . Gelatin silver print, 43.2 cm x 27.9 cm
Courtesy the Estate of General Idea

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No Mean Feet, 1973-1974
Gelatin silver print, 27,9 x 43,2 cm
Courtesy the Estate of General Idea

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GENERAL IDEA is an artist collective formed in Toronto by AA BRONSON, FELIX PARTZ and JORGE ZONTAL. The collective name GENERAL IDEA was adopted in 1969, they chose a generic name that “freed them from the tyranny of the myth of the individual genius“. They worked together until the deaths of PARTZ and ZONTAL in 1994.

GENERAL IDEA‘s twenty-five years of collective output generated a body of work that, in addition to performances, photographs, videos and installations, took the form of an eclectic range of distributed media, including postcards, posters, pins, stamps, press releases, wallpaper, drinking glasses, inflatables, advertisements and publications. Never didactic, GENERAL IDEA operated in the realm of humor and an often outrageous pop sensibility to forge a unique conceptual practice questioning the artworld and popular media culture.

Here are six important dates in the oeuvre of GENERAL IDEA:

• 1970: Miss General Idea which became the group’s official muse, was featured in the Miss General Idea Beauty Pageants, a series of legendary performance art events
• 1974: 1984 Miss General Idea Pavilion, an extended project, and the General Idea boutiques, installation pieces that functioned as shops for selling their multiples and editions
• 1974: GENERAL IDEA founded Art Metropole, an organization devoted to collecting, publishing and distributing artists’ books, multiples, audio and video, which continues today
• from 1972 to 1989:  they published the influential FILE magazine (subverting the logo and format of Life magazine), which, with its ironic tone and irreverent content, served as an “alternative to the Alternative Press.”
• In the 1979 video Test-Tube, GENERAL IDEA stated: “We don’t want to destroy television as we know it. We want to add to it, stretch it until it starts to lose shape, stretch the social fabric…Imagine all those new sensibilities taking up more and more room, those chaotic situations on the fringe of society flooding the mainstream…” (see video above)
• In the 1980s and early 1990s, they began to focus on the AIDS epidemic and its cultural and political implication. GENERAL IDEA‘s 1987 reconfiguration of Robert Indiana’s famous LOVE logo as “AIDS,” which was widely disseminated as posters, wallpaper and other forms, became one of the iconic gestures of 1980s’ AIDS activism.

Haute Culture: General Idea is the first retrospective to be devoted to GENERAL IDEA and is on view at Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris (MAM) until 30th April, 2011. The show is organised by themes such as “The artist, glamour and the creative process”, “Mass culture”, “Sex and reality” and “Architects/Archaeologists” and provides a coherent and substantial exhibtion.

“The current reality wasn’t sufficient for us, or we didn’t feel we belonged, so we had to create our own world, which was a kind of parody, an imperfect simulacrum of a perfect world.” – by GENERAL IDEA