Sunday, June 20, 2010

Istvan Kantor: Doing His Own Thing



Visual Arts, writer Peter Goddard, writes this about this unusual artist,in the Toronto Star.
...gentrified Toronto will understand why, in his chosen role as arts performer-provocateur, he rails against authoritarian organizations, primarily art museums. Mostly, he does so by way of orchestrated performances where he smears or drips or spills his own blood perilously close to some of art’s greatest works.

In 1991, one of his “Blood Campaign” performances led to him being booted out of the National Gallery of Canada. Months of badgering by his lawyer — and the artist’s 2004 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts — earned him entry back into the Ottawa institution.

In 2006, the Art Gallery of Toronto gave him the heave-ho for performing in the nude (with computer parts clipped to his private parts) in front of a prize Andy Warhol work, even though the show carried the provocative title, “Supernova: Stars, Deaths and Disasters.” He’s still banned from the AGO.


Please click here to read Peter's article in the Toronto Star.
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