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The Arts Intel Report

General Idea

General Idea, Self-portrait with Objects, 1981–82.

Apr 1 – July 16, 2023
Museumplein 10, 1071 DJ Amsterdam, Netherlands

The radical Canadian trio General Idea hasn’t had a retrospective for 10 years, when its work was displayed at Toronto’s Art Gallery of Ontario. Only one member of the trio, AA Bronson, survives; Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal both died of AIDS in 1994. Ever since the three joined forces in 1969, their game was satirizing the art world, subverting and appropriating commercial subjects and motifs. They produced things like FILE Megazine, a riff on LIFE Magazine, and their Infected Mondrian sees the artist’s famous grid repainted with a gnarly green instead of the original yellow. In its final years, the trio famously recast Robert Indiana’s LOVE as AIDS. With this blockbuster show of around 200 works, which travels from the National Gallery of Canada, the fringe group goes mainstream. —Elena Clavarino

Photo: National Gallery of Canada © General Idea