HAMILTON, ONTARIO, CANADA.- The McMaster Museum of Art at McMaster University presents “General Idea Editions,” on view through January 4, 2004, Co-presented by the Art Gallery of Hamilton and McMaster Museum of Art. A retrospective exhibition featuring over 200 items produced between 1967 and 1995 by the renowned Canadian artists’ collective General Idea (Jorge Zontal, AA Bronson, Felix Partz). Organized and circulated by the Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto at Mississauga. Curated by Barbara Fischer. Lunchtime Talk by Shirley Madill, Senior Curator, Art Gallery of Hamilton: Wednesday November 19, 12:30 pm. Public Reception: Thursday November 20, 7-9 pm. Talk by Toronto Artist Luis Jacob: Thursday November 20, 7:30 pm. 

General Idea Editions 1967-1995 is organized by the Blackwood Gallery (UTM) with the financial assistance of the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Andy Warhol Foundation. The circulation of the exhibition is made possible by a grant from the Museums Assistance Program of the Canadian Department of Heritage. 

The renowned collaborative team of artists -- General Idea’s Jorge Zontal, AA Bronson, and Felix Partz -- came to international attention for their incisive interventions in the contemporary media environment of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Pioneers of conceptual and media-based practices, their work included installation, performance, video, photography, as well as edition-based works. To this day their work remains acutely relevant for younger artists, not only as a model for collaboration, but also for the articulations of queer identity and the imaginative formation of alternative communities. General Idea perfected the principle of inhabitation of the forms of popular and media culture (the boutique, “Life” magazine, beauty pageants, etc.), and of bending these to their own needs.  

An integral, important part of General Idea’s practice has been the design and fabrication of mass-produced articles, multiples and editions, including postcards, prints, posters, as well as wallpaper, balloons, crests and TV dinner plates. General Idea editions are not just a commercial product, that is, secondary or even subordinated manifestations of more important original works. Instead, the editions, as Friedemann Malsch has put it, form an important and coherent grouping of the complete work. They form a discourse that is constitutive of the group’s broader artistic concepts, such as that of the “Image Virus“ and of the theatrical tactics of dissemination, particularly for new, formerly marginalized identities, and include the devaluation of originality and artistic genius, and ironic and critical analysis of the art business, the gallery as a commercial enterprise, and the role of the media. 

After presenting the first definitive and complete retrospective of General Idea Editions in January 2003, the Blackwood Gallery will be offering the exhibition for touring in Canada (2003-2004) and in the U.S.A. (2005-2007).  The exhibition will include nearly 200 items, including prints, postcards, posters, photo-based projects, multiples, serial publications, flags, and crests, produced by General Idea between the years 1968 and 1994 (when Partz and Zontal passed away due to AIDS-related causes). It will consist of framed works as well as loose leaf works; other works will be presented in vitrines (included in the tour). A significant component of the exhibition will include a selection of wall papers -- such as TV “Test Pattern” (1989) or AIDS -- as well as “Magi© Bullet” special edition helium-filled Mylar balloons (1992). These will be availible uder a seperate budget and in a scale to be determined in discussion with each venue. 

General Idea’s deliberate blurring of design and art, and art and life-style, can provide a historical context to contemporary debates concerning the relation between art, design, and architecture.  In addition, the exhibition responds specifically to the recently renewed, vigorous interest in conceptual art and strategies of “dematerialization” by a younger generation of artists, internationally. Finally, outreach and educational programming could involve the presentation of local and regional conceptual and post-conceptual tendencies, but may also address topics such as artistic collaboration, or artists’ response to the AIDS crisis.