General Idea
Life & Work by Sarah E.K. Smith
AIDS marked a significant shift in General Idea’s practice, leading to other works
focused on the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The painting mimics American Pop art painter
Robert Indiana’s (b. 1928) 1966 work LOVE. For General Idea LOVE exemplified the
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spirit of universal love, an ethos that was the foundation of the 1960s. Indiana’s red,
blue, and green rendering of the word “LOVE” became ubiquitous, appearing on goods,
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including key chains, cocktail napkins, and a United States postage stamp. Attracted by
the fluidity of this image, which travelled internationally, General Idea made a visually
similar painting, but replaced the word “LOVE” with “AIDS.” The group created this work
in response to an invitation from their gallery Koury Wingate (previously International
With Monument) to contribute to a June 1987 exhibition in support of the American
Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR).
“Our intention with this logo was that it would…play the part of a virus itself,”
Bronson explained, “that it would spread within the culture and create a…visibility for the
word ‘AIDS,’ so it couldn’t be swept under the carpet, which was…what was
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happening.” General Idea envisioned their AIDS logo as a larger publicity campaign
Robert Indiana, LOVE, 1966–99, polychrome
aluminum, 365.7 x 365.7 x 182.9 cm, various
locations. Indiana’s LOVE first appeared as
paintings and small sculptures in 1966. In 1970
the first monumental LOVE sculpture, made of
Cor-Ten steel, was constructed for the
Indianapolis Museum of Art. Since then LOVE
sculptures have been installed around the world.
The sculpture pictured is located in New York and
dates from 2000
that would spread awareness and combat the stigma and fear surrounding the disease.
They created iterations of the logo in a range of media, including sculpture, painting,
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wallpaper, posters, and multiples. Public poster campaigns were initiated in cities
including New York City, Toronto, Berlin, and San Francisco.
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Though the 1987 painting was not poorly
received, the subsequent poster version was
criticized by a younger generation of AIDS
activists in New York, in part, for its coded
approach and for not including information on
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safe sex. AA Bronson later acknowledged, “It
was about as bad taste as you could get at that
moment to do that. That attracted us to a certain
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extent.” The topic of AIDS was taboo and given
the context of the pandemic, General Idea’s logo
was shocking in its cheerful visualization and
allusions to promiscuity.
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The significance and activist dimension
of General Idea’s AIDS logo cannot be
understated, especially during a period in which
great fear and a lack of information surrounded
the disease. The group’s attention to the AIDS
pandemic took on more significance when Felix
Partz and Jorge Zontal were diagnosed as HIV9
positive in 1989 and 1990, respectively. The
Installation view of General Idea, AIDS, 1988–90, installation consists of three paintings, AIDS, 1988,
acrylic on canvas, each 243.7 x 243.7 cm, installed on AIDS (Wallpaper), 1990, screen print on wallpaper,
rolled 68.6 x 4.6 (diam.) cm, unrolled 457 x 68.6 cm, overall dimensions variable, Art Gallery of Ontario,
Toronto. This installation view is from General Idea’s Fin de siècle, Württembergischer Kunstverein,
Stuttgart, Germany, 1992
majority of the group’s work in the late 1980s
and early 1990s addressed this issue. The
group’s activity ended in 1994 due to the deaths of Zontal and Partz from AIDS-related
causes.
Fin de siècle 1990
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