General Idea

In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). 

Their pioneering conceptual practice critiqued mass culture using appropriation and satire. The group adopted a performative and proudly queer identity and inspired by their Fluxus predecessors, manifested ideas in mediums like performance, multiples, and painting. Their campy humor, satire, and queer mischief stayed constant throughout their career, as did many motifs, such as drag beauty pageant proceedings, flamboyant poodles, and inflated AZT pills.

As the AIDS crisis intensified during the 1980s, affecting many with both disease and stigma, General Idea's practice increasingly incorporated social activism as an essential component. Influenced by contemporary media theories, they reinterpreted popular images with small but critical mutations, coining the ‘image virus'.

Treasures in General Idea’s oeuvre take unconventional forms including wallpaper, crests, sex toys, cigars, and flags, each interconnected and clandestinely referential. Caviar20 is unique to focus on the group’s multiples.

In 2022, the National Gallery of Canada held a major retrospective of the group's work, which has since traveled to Amsterdam and is scheduled to open in Berlin this fall 2023.