Installation view of Mitchell-Innes & Nash at Frieze New York, New York, 2021
Installation view of Mitchell-Innes & Nash at Frieze New York, New York, 2021
Installation view of Mitchell-Innes & Nash at Frieze New York, New York, 2021
Installation view of Mitchell-Innes & Nash at Frieze New York, New York, 2021
Installation view of Mitchell-Innes & Nash in Frieze New York, New York, 2021
Installation view of Mitchell-Innes & Nash in Frieze New York, New York, 2021
Installation view of Mitchell-Innes & Nash in Frieze New York, New York, 2021
Installation view of Mitchell-Innes & Nash in Frieze New York, New York, 2021
Installation view of Mitchell-Innes & Nash in Frieze New York, New York, 2021
Installation view of Mitchell-Innes & Nash in Frieze New York, New York, 2021
Installation view of Mitchell-Innes & Nash in Frieze New York, New York, 2021
GENERAL IDEA
El Dorado Series
1992
Nine elements of tinted hydrostone on extruded Styrofoam
29 7/8 by 24 1/8 in. 75.9 by 61.3 cm. each panel (9 parts)
GENERAL IDEA
S/HE
1976
Ten gelatin silver prints with printed text, installed as two sets on facing walls
29 7/8 by 24 1/8 in. 75.9 by 61.3 cm. each (unframed dimensions)
31 1/4 by 24 3/4 in. 79.4 by 62.9 cm. each (framed dimensions)
Installation dimensions variable
GENERAL IDEA
S/HE
1976
Ten gelatin silver prints with printed text, installed as two sets on facing walls
29 7/8 by 24 1/8 in. 75.9 by 61.3 cm. each (unframed dimensions)
31 1/4 by 24 3/4 in. 79.4 by 62.9 cm. each (framed dimensions)
Installation dimensions variable
GENERAL IDEA
S/HE
1976
Ten gelatin silver prints with printed text, installed as two sets on facing walls
29 7/8 by 24 1/8 in. 75.9 by 61.3 cm. each (unframed dimensions)
31 1/4 by 24 3/4 in. 79.4 by 62.9 cm. each (framed dimensions)
Installation dimensions variable
GENERAL IDEA
Mondo Cane Kama Sutra (Distressed) #9
1983/88
Acrylic on canvas
43 3/8 by 37 by 3 1/8 in. 110 by 94 by 8 cm.
GENERAL IDEA
Fin de Siecle
1994
Lacquer on vinyl (digital print)
89 by 58 1/4 in. 226.1 by 148 cm.
![GENERAL IDEA Untitled (Poodle) [Drawing #260] 1990](https://img.artlogic.net/w_750,h_750,c_limit/exhibit-e/63936142fcaaf75aef06bd82/b5279d3296f7e6bb524fbee0d93d6839.jpeg)
GENERAL IDEA
Untitled (Poodle) [Drawing #260]
1990
Watercolor and colored pencil on sketchbook paper
14 by 10 7/16 in. 35.5 by 26.5 cm.
![GENERAL IDEA Untitled (Poodle) [Drawing #268] 1991](https://img.artlogic.net/w_750,h_750,c_limit/exhibit-e/63936142fcaaf75aef06bd82/7d0296a7f7588aefad608dc6d0b62a56.jpeg)
GENERAL IDEA
Untitled (Poodle) [Drawing #268]
1991
Colored pencil on sketchbook paper
14 by 10 7/16 in. 35.5 by 26.5 cm.
![GENERAL IDEA Untitled [Two Poodles with Atomizer] 1990](https://img.artlogic.net/w_750,h_750,c_limit/exhibit-e/63936142fcaaf75aef06bd82/a0796107846f6379cb57db439a772879.jpeg)
GENERAL IDEA
Untitled [Two Poodles with Atomizer]
1990
Colored pencil and watercolor on sketchbook paper
8 by 11 in. 20.2 by 27.8 cm.
GENERAL IDEA
Untitled (Pink Poodles with Arc de Triomphe)
1983
Acrylic on canvas
54 3/8 by 55 1/8 in. 138.1 by 140 cm.
STAND A08
May 5 – 9, 2021
The Shed | 545 West 30th Street, New York, NY 10001
Between 10th and 11th Avenues
FAIR HOURS:
Wednesday, May 5: 11 am – 7 pm
Thursday, May 6: 11 am – 7 pm
Friday, May 7: 11 am – 7 pm
Saturday, May 8: 11 am – 7 pm
Sunday, May 9: 11 am – 5 pm
For Frieze New York, Esther Schipper and Mitchell-Innes & Nash are pleased to announce a joint presentation of works by General Idea.
Formed in 1969 by AA Bronson, Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal, General Idea created a pioneering and singular body of work that addressed the intersection of art and commerce, the role of the artist and the museum, body politics and the AIDS crisis.
Anchoring this solo booth will be El Dorado Series, a suite of nine abstract paintings made of tinted hydrostone on extruded Styrofoam. While the title references the mythical city of gold that lured 16th-century Spanish conquistadors into the then-uncharted territories of South America, the nine tones of the colored hydrostone are pointillist interpretations of 18th-century Spanish “caste” paintings in the collection of Museo Nacional de Antropología, Madrid.
Also on view will be S/HE -- a playful multi-panel photo work mimicking the format of fashion spreads to explore the guises of masculine and feminine identities -- as well as a selection of paintings and works on paper featuring the artist group’s oft-recurring poodle motif, which General Idea used to probe issues ranging from sexual stereotypes to the commodification of contemporary art.
After more than a year without art fairs, Frieze New York is back. But this highly anticipated pandemic-era edition looked a little different. Rather than setting up shop in the usual sprawling tent on Randall’s Island, some 60 international galleries occupied the Shed, the multidisciplinary performing arts space in Hudson Yards on Manhattan’s West Side.
The cross-Atlantic partnership between New York’s Mitchell-Innes & Nash and Berlin’s Esther Schipper has resulted in an excellent booth devoted to the output of
General Idea, the collective formed in 1969 by AA Bronson, Felix Partz, and Jorge Zontal. The presentation features some of their most distinctive works, like their paintings and drawings of frollicking, frilly poodles (priced between $15,000 and $168,000), and their darkly comic 1992 group self-portrait Playing Doctor (priced at $150,000). The work was created at the height of the AIDS crisis that would ultimately claim Partz’s and Zontal’s lives. The booth’s centerpiece is the set of nine abstract panels El Dorado Series (1992), an abstracted interpretation of 18th-century Spanish caste paintings that sought to establish a hierarchy among ethnic groups in South America.
Founded in 1969 by the artists AA Bronson, Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal, the collective General Idea made heady but playful work that dealt with sex, art, money, and the AIDS crisis. This solo presentation offers a scattershot but substantive introduction to the group’s oeuvre. Their signature poodles appear both in cheerfully self-aware drawings with mounds of pasta-like curls and on canvas in a discreet ménage-à-trois.
