Istvan Kantor

Kantor was born in Hungary on August 27, 1949.{{cite book|first=Kristine|last=Stiles|author-link=Kristine Stiles|title=Concerning Consequences: Studies in Art, Destruction, and Trauma|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VthwCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA91|date=21 March 2016|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-77453-4|pages=91ff}} In the 1970s, he studied medicine, but also participated in the underground arts scene of communist Budapest that centered on the art historian {{ill|László Beke|hu|Beke László}}.

In 1976, at the Young Art Club in Budapest, Cantsin met the American prankster and mail artist David Zack. Zack suggested the idea of adopting the multiple identity Monty Cantsin, which Kantor accepted, to the extent that it became chiefly associated with him.{{cite book|title=Art-com|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m5IXAQAAMAAJ|year=1983|publisher=Contemporary Arts Press}} Returning to Montreal, he organized a Mail Art show, "The Brain in the Mail",{{cite book|author=John Held|title=Mail Art: An Annotated Bibliography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JANUAAAAMAAJ|year=1991|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-2455-3}} and in 1979 founded the Neoism movement.{{cite web|last1=Mitrovic|first1=Sasa|title=The Toronto Artist Museums Hate|url=http://www.torontostandard.com/culture/istvan-kantor-neoisim-blood-campaigns-and-guerilla-art/|website=Toronto Standard|date=13 February 2013|access-date=8 June 2016}} Soon afterwards, Neoism expanded into an international subcultural network that collectively used the Monty Cantsin identity.{{cite book|author=Tatiana Bazzichelli|title=Networking: The Net as Artwork|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VbiQ2-Xh20EC&pg=PA43|date=February 2009|publisher=BoD – Books on Demand|isbn=978-87-91810-08-4|pages=43–44}}

Kantor's own work in the late 1970s and early 1980s consisted most notably of the "Blood Campaign", an ongoing series of performances in which he takes his own blood and splashes it onto walls,{{citation|last=Lloyd|first=Ginny|author-link=Ginny Lloyd|title=The Storefront: A living art project|publisher=Lloyd Productions|location=San Francisco|date=1984}} canvases or into the audience. At the same time, he continued to work within the Neoist network, co-organizing and participating in a series of Neoist festivals, which began as "Apartment Festivals", which were also called simply "APTs".

His more controversial works involve vandalism and gore, painting large X's in his own blood on the walls of modern art museums including next to two Picasso paintings at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in 1988{{sfn|Stiles|2016|pages=388ff}}{{cite journal|author=Mark Kramer|title=The Medium Is a Mess|journal=Spy|date=November 1997|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RP0KUMW09m0C&pg=PA38|pages=36–43 (38)|issn=0890-1759}} and at the Jeff Koons retrospective at the Whitney Museum in 2016.{{cite web|last1=Steinhauer|first1=Jillian|title=Man Vandalizes Jeff Koons Retrospective [Updated]|url=http://hyperallergic.com/144857/man-vandalizes-jeff-koons-retrospective/|website=Hyperallergenic| date=20 August 2014 |access-date=8 June 2016}}{{cite web|title=Canadian blood artist, Istvan Kantor, hits Jeff Koons exhibit|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/canadian-blood-artist-istvan-kantor-hits-jeff-koons-exhibit-1.2742657|website=CBC News|access-date=8 June 2016}} In doing so he has been banned from some art galleries, a status he holds with pride. In 2004, he threw a vial of his own blood on a wall beside a sculpture of Michael Jackson by Paul McCarthy in the Hamburger Bahnhof contemporary art museum of Berlin.{{cite news|last=Ross|first=Cecily|title=Blood artist strikes again, in Berlin|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/blood-artist-strikes-again-in-berlin/article1144664/|website=The Globe and Mail| date=2 December 2004 |access-date=8 June 2016}} Although his later work has been dismissed as a simple vandalism by some parts of the media.{{Cite web|url=http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/10/art-crime-vandalismculturejeffkoonsbanksy.html|title=Opinion: Is vandalism of art excusable?|author=Kyle Chayka|date=October 26, 2014|website=Al Jazeera America|access-date=January 10, 2023}} Curator Laura O'Reilly, commenting on Istvan Kantors writing "Monty Cantsin" on a piece by artist Nelson Saiers in the Hole Shop gallery in New York, said "There's a fine line between pissing on someone else's piece as a form self expression – if you're going to call that art."{{Cite web | url=http://animalnewyork.com/2015/istvan-kantor-strikes-again-vandal-artist-tags-nelson-saiers-art/ | title=Istvan Kantor Strikes Again: Vandal-Artist Tags Nelson Saiers' Art | date=11 June 2015 }}

Past work also includes noise installations and performances with electrically modified file cabinets.{{cite book|author1=Hannes Leopoldseder|author2=Christine Schöpf|title=Cyberarts 2000|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UDnW6agINjIC&pg=PA1991|year=2000|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-3-211-83498-5|pages=1991ff}} He also founded the "Machine Sex Action Group" which realizes theatrical cyber-futuristic body performances in an S/M style.{{cite web|last1=Baird|first1=Daniel|title=Istvan Kantor with Daniel Baird|url=http://www.brooklynrail.org/2004/06/art/istvan-kantor|website=The Brooklyn Rail|date=June 2004 |access-date=8 June 2016}} The human body in its relation to machines, explored both in its apocalyptic and subversive potentials remains a major theme of his work.

In March 2004 he was awarded the Canadian Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/20/world/the-saturday-profile-x-marks-his-disputed-spot-in-canada-s-art-scene.html|title=The Saturday Profile; 'X' Marks His (Disputed) Spot in Canada's Art Scene|author=Clifford Krauss|date=March 20, 2004|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=January 10, 2023}}

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Category:Canadian performance artists

Category:Hungarian performance artists

Category:Hungarian emigrants to Canada

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Category:1949 births

Category:Living people

Category:Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts winners

Category:Canadian sound artists

Category:Robotic art

Category:Canadian installation artists

Category:Pupils of Ernő Dohnányi