The Art Gallery of Ontario kicks off its General Idea retrospective, Haute Culture, on Friday with a free-for-all party from 6 – 9 pm. The really BIG show sprawls over two floors and 20,000 square feet of gallery space and features more than 300 works from the three-man collective’s extensive catalogue. This is the first comprehensive retrospective devoted to the group, a collaboration between artists AA Bronson (above right), Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal that began in Toronto in 1969.
Bronson, the only surviving member of the group, seemed genuinely buoyed by the attention showered upon him at yesterday’s press preview. The public acclaim stands in marked contrast to the commercial sphere; Bronson is unrepresented in North America although his work continues to be celebrated and collected privately in Europe (a survey of his solo career opens at Berlin’s Esther Schipper Gallery in October).
AIDS 1988-1990 Installation, three AIDS paintings (1988) on AIDS wallpaper (1990).
“Nobody takes much interest in me in Canada,” said the artist who is now based in New York. “The collector market here is small and I think General Idea is too difficult for Canada. They want something that’s more straight-forward.”
Evidence of Body Binding (1971 - 72)
Haute Culture was conceived and organized by the AGO in conjunction with the Musee d’Art Moderne in Paris where it drew raves and crowds through the early spring. The show is by turns fun and provocative and convincingly affirms the degree to which General Idea was ahead of its time in examining subjects like glamour and the creative process, mass culture and sexual and social mores. Friday’s opening promises to be an Event with a capital E – Bronson should love it.
WHERE/WHEN: Haute Culture, General Idea A Retrospective, 1969 – 1994 is at the Art Gallery of Ontario (317 Dundas Street West), July 30, 2011 – January 1, 2012.
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