General Idea was a collective of three Canadian artists Ronald Gabe (1945–1994), Slobodan Saia-Levy (1944–1994), and Michael Tims (b. 1946). They met in Toronto in 1969, and later took the names Felix Partz, Jorge Zontal and AA Bronson. They started to name themselves as General Idea after they were addressed as such when they proposed an exhibition plan.
This item is extremely well preserved without line folds as is usually the case, due to flat storage in cardboard box and the fact that it was directly purchased from the publisher. See website of MoMA Collection in New York, USA. Felt pen signature is in splendid condition.
History of prices:
Waddington’s Auctioneers, Toronto, Canada 1 may 2025 € 319,- (hammer price)
Zwiggelaar Auctions, Amsterdam 23 June 2023 € 260,- (hammer price)
Grisebach, Berlin, Germany 26 February 2021 € 550,- (hammer price)
Grisebach, Berlin, Germany 14 March 2021 € 687,- (hammer price)
Waddington’s Auctioneers, Toronto, Canada 17 March 2016 € 155,- (hammer price)
Art Metropole, Toronto, Canada June 1993 SFr 150,-
VOEBE DE GRUYTER, Mist Walks 1996-1999, 1999
21 x 15 cm,
artist’s book, stapled, 16 pp., SC
light weight and semi transparent plastic bag, ink stamped card, dustcover comes in three colours
signed, dated
edition ca 50
published by Galerie van Gelder, Amsterdam
inv.VdG 451
This book contains stories about mist seen by the artist in various situations and places. In a plastic sleeve envelope at the back of this artist’s book one finds a very thin bag to be pulled over one’s head, as an added card reads: “Suggestion for a mist walk”.
TWAN JANSSEN, Next, 2000
15 x 21 cm
hand made embossed invitation card, silver coloured
hand numbered
edition 1000
mint
published by Galerie van Gelder, Amsterdam
€ 25,- plus € 8,50 Track & Trace registered EU mail
inv. TJ 000-pr
FRANCIS ALŸS, Lada Kopeika Project, April 16 – 21, 2014
10,5 x 14,8 cm
postcard, with texts in Russian and English
edition unknown
published by Manifesta 10
€ 45,- + € 8,- Track & Trace registered EU mail
inv.FAly 471-pr
The text on this card reads: ‘When we were young, my brother and I shared a 1981 Lada Riva. One day we decided to escape our bourgeois Belgian society and drive to Leningrad. But the car broke down and soon after our lives parted. 30 years later I invite my brother to drive from Belgium to St.Petersburg, now in a 1977 Lada Kopeika. Upon arrival we’ll crash the car into a tree in the courtyard of the Winter Palace, together with the illusions of our youth.
Without an ending there is no beginning.’
Francis Alÿs is well-known for a walk called The Green Line through Jerusalem, along the 1948 partition lines, through armed checkpoints, holding a leaking can of paint: ‘Sometimes doing something poetic can become political and sometimes doing something political can become poetic’.
DAVID HORVITZ, Studio Rent Editions [March], 2017
30,4 x 22,8 cm
ink drawing on tracing paper, envelope
signed, numbered, dated
edition 10
published by the artist
inv.DHor 000-pr
mail d.d. 15 March 2017 from David Horvitz:
Hi Everyone,
Here is info for March’s studio rent edition.
It is tracing paper.
I have traced with pen 35 scratches on a board that my cat has scratched.
It is March, and this month I turn 35.
So this is using cat scratches to count the years!
This is actually part of the process of making another work, which should be done in some months… Where I needed to get a trace of a cat scratch to make a gold foil stamp of it…
WJM KOK, Maxi-Color, 1992
33,9 x 25 cm
offset, stapled color book
signed, numbered, dated
edition 200
condition: scuffed front couver
published by the artist
This edition was never completed; circa 50 copies were made. Here a used copy with sticker residues is shown.
The prints and paintings (1991-present) with the name Maxi-Color are part of a large group of works in which an industrial product is appropriated by the artist. On the one hand, this group of works can be divided into ‘appropriation art’ and, on the other hand, into a product that is ‘already made’ as Marcel Duchamps put it. An ‘objet trouvé’ as the colour book featured above.
Space 251 Nord – Investigations, 1985 [Place Saint Lambert, Liège, Belgium]
40,4 x 28 cm
oversized catalogue, ca 50 black & white ill.,
good condition with slightly discoloring on cover, book block separated from spine due to aged Lümbeck binding
€ 165,- plus € 18,- Track & Trace registered EU mail
inv.Spa 000-pr
This catalogue is featuring 38 artists participating in Investigations at Space 251 Nord in Liège: Jacques Charlier, Leo Copers, Michel François, Anne Veronica Janssens, Bernd Lohaus, Luigi Ontani, Sigurdur Gudmundsson, Guillaume Bijl, Klaus Jung, Michel Moffarts, Panamarenko, Dan Van Severen, a.o.
Also poster available.
JONATHAN MONK, The distance between you and me, 2014 [signed postcard]
10,4 x 14,7 cm
offset,
each card hand stamped, signed
edition 62 + 10 AP
published by Haubrok Foundation, Berlin, Germany
very rare
€ 390,- plus € 12,- Track & Trace registered mail
inv.JMonk 971-972
Jonathan Monk says that ‘once something has been done, it can be done again in a different colour’. Here repetition has been applied by doing a hand stamp twice leading to a kind of romantic image making.
VIKTOR & ROLF, “Monsieur”, 2004
42 x 29,5 cm
tabloid newspaper, offset, 8pp.
half-year publication: Spring/Summer announcing flower prints on fabrics by Lily van der Stokker very rare
condition: used
published by Viktor & Rolf, Amsterdam
inv.V&R 000-pr
