General Idea
Life & Work by Sarah E.K. Smith
Provocateurs General Idea (active 1969–1994) invented their history and made it reality:
“We wanted to be famous, glamourous and rich. That is to say we wanted to be artists
and we knew that if we were famous and glamourous we could say we were artists and
we would be.… We did and we are. We are famous, glamourous artists.”1 The group—
comprised of AA Bronson, Felix Partz, and Jorge Zontal—met in Toronto in the late
1960s and went on to live and work together for twenty-five years. General Idea ceased
activities in 1994, with the untimely deaths of Partz and Zontal from AIDS-related
causes.
3