General Idea 1968 - 1994

Estimate

20,000 - 30,000 CAD

bidding is closed

Description

General Idea
Atomic Blast, 1984
acrylic on canvas and wood
107 by 91.3 cm.
42 by 36 in.

Provenance

Carmen Lamanna Gallery, Toronto
Private Collection, Ontario

Exhibited

Baby Makes 3, Carmen Lamanna Gallery, Toronto, 1984
General Idea 1968-1984, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, 1984; Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 1985
The 1984 Miss General Idea Pavillion, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 1985; Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montréal, 1985

Literature

Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, General Idea 1968-1984, Eindhoven, 1984, p. 98. reproduced.
Jay Scott, “Going through the notions,” Canadian Art, Toronto, 1:1 (fall 1984), p. 79, reproduced.

Catalogue Note

This rare, early, and beautiful painting by General Idea has been in a private collection virtually since it was painting in 1984. The atomic blast it depicts has been a constant image in the world’s imagination since Hiroshima, but this pointilist version, so exquisitely executed, is ambiguous, metaphorical, and referential to art history, HIV-AIDS and the Atomic bomb.

Additional Literature:

Mitsuhiro Takemura, “Summon the Muse of the Imagination (General Idea’s Simulation Blue),”Bijutsu Techo, Tokyo, 41:603 (January 1989), p. 74, reproduced.
Stephan Trescher, General Idea. Die Kanadische Künstlergruppe, Nürnberg: Verlag für moderne Kunst, 1996, p. 149, reproduced.
National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives, General Idea fonds Finding Aid, Projects Series 1983-1984; Notebooks Series (b) Felix Partz Notebooks, file 1985 2/2; Correspondence Series [Business], Art Gallery of Ontario 1971-1995 file.