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Arts

Istvan Kantor hosts an anti-Xmas art sale

Posted by Staff / December 19, 2011

Istvan Kantor Art SaleEvery once in a while Governor General award winning artist Istvan Kantor opens up garage/studio space to the public for a sale. It's a strange space, crammed with artworks and relics that the Hungarian-born artist has collected over the years, but it's also one of those places that's kind of awesome to know exists in the city, sitting, as it does, in some anonymous back alley north of Trinity Bellwoods Park. To get a peek inside the place is to see a sort of living archive of a life devoted not just to art but to living as art.

If that sounds a bit contrived, you haven't met Kantor, who's mere presence suggests the possibility of dramatics of some sort. On Saturday it was the burning of his own "masterpieces" — presumably the type of anti-capitalist gesture that made this an anti-Xmas event — while in the past he's been banned from art galleries across the country for impromptu performance pieces that challenge the status of institutionalized art spaces. His "Blood Campaign" of the 1980s, for instance, saw the artist splash his own blood across gallery walls dangerously close to other artists' paintings much to the ire of curators.

This visit to the "Vatican of Neoism" — Kantor's studio, named after the artistic philosophy to which he subscribes — wasn't that eventful. Only a handful of people were around when we passed by, and the burning ritual thus didn't inspire much shock and awe. Nevertheless, poking around this strange art sale was a fascinating way to spend a half-hour.

PHOTOS

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Discussion

6 Comments

BH / December 19, 2011 at 05:17 pm
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Sounds like both a kook and a bit of a dick, and splashing blood in galleries or calling museums "prisons" is moronic. Hello, where else are ya gonna see art if it's all scattered around in private hands?

Just because he an edgy performance artist doesn't make him good, and judging by the photos there's little chance of that. I suppose its good to know he exists, but that enough.
Body Movin / December 19, 2011 at 08:51 pm
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This artwork seems like something done in 1983. Maybe Istvan is frustrated and angry that he hasn't had an original idea since then.
mobo / December 19, 2011 at 10:06 pm
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yea right. grade 9 art by a 60 yr old flake. what a rebel. C R A P
uhh / December 19, 2011 at 11:38 pm
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All I have to say is... what the fuck? Whatever this guy is on, give me some.
Zoli / December 20, 2011 at 09:34 am
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Yo guys...don't judge an artist by his garage sale.

Check out his video works, there's some really interesting stuff there.

Look a bit into what Neoism is as well. Monty Cantsin is a shared identity that Neoist artists work under and apparently it was born out of snail mail art.

He also performs music along to his works. This guy is a true character and LIVES it. He doesn't just make it and talk it up.
Skin / December 21, 2011 at 06:16 pm
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This parasite should be sealed into a block of concret.
That would be art.

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