Gilbert and George

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Gilbert and George are two modern artists who work together as a duo. Gilbert Proesch (born 17 September 1943) and George Passmore (born 8 January 1942) are to be seen and heard in much of their art, and have become famous for their odd, highly formal appearance and manner. Gilbert and George occupy a unique position among contemporary artists of the last half-century and have built up a vast body of art that has earned them international acclaim.

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[edit] Early life

Gilbert was born in San Martin de Tor in Italy, and studied art at the Wolkenstein School of Art and Hallein School of Art in Austria and the Akademie der Kunst, Munich, before moving to England. George was born in Plymouth in the United Kingdom, and first studied art at the Dartington Hall College of Art and the Oxford School of Art, then part of the Oxford College of Technology, which eventually became Oxford Brookes University.

The two first met on 25 September 1967 while studying sculpture at St Martins School of Art, now Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, one of six colleges in the University of the Arts, London. The two claim they came together because George was the only person who could understand Gilbert's rather poorly spoken English. In a 2002 interview with The Daily Telegraph they said of their meeting: "it was love at first sight." (Telegraph, 05.28.02). It is widely assumed that Gilbert & George are partners, and although they dismiss questions about their sex lives, George, in the documentary 'Imagine', aired on 8 May 2007 in the UK, referred to Gilbert and himself as "two poofs".

[edit] Living and singing sculptures

They were initially known as living sculptures. Whilst still students they made The Singing Sculpture (1969), for which they covered their heads and hands in multi-coloured metalised powders, stood on a table, and sang along and moved to a recording of Flanagan and Allen's song "Underneath the Arches", sometimes for a day at a time. The suits they wore for these sculpture became a sort of uniform for them, and they rarely appear in public unless wearing them. It is also virtually unheard of for one of the pair to be seen without the other. They refuse to disassociate their art from their everyday lives, insisting that everything they do is art. The pair regard themselves as "living sculptures".

[edit] Pictures

The pair are perhaps best known for their large scale pictures, such as Cosmological Pictures (1993), frequently extremely brightly coloured, backlit, and overlaid with black grids. Gilbert and George themselves often feature in these works, along with flowers and youths, their friends, and echoes of Christian symbolism. The early pictures in this style were in black and white, with red and yellow touches in later ones. Later these works moved to use a range of bold colours. Their 2005 pictures, Sonofagod, are heavily bejeweled.

Some of their pictures have attracted media attention through including potentially shocking imagery, including nudity, depictions of sexual acts, and bodily fluids, such as faeces, urine and semen. The titling of their pictures, such as "Naked Shit Pictures" (1994), has also contributed to media attention. In 1986 Gilbert and George attracted criticism for a series of pictures seemingly glamorizing 'rough types' of London's East End such as skinheads, while a picture of an Asian man bore the title "Paki".

For many years they have been residents of Fournier Street, Spitalfields, East London. In 2000 they moved galleries to be represented by White Cube.

In May 2007, Gilbert and George were the subject of a BBC 'Imagine' documentary presented by Alan Yentob. At the end of the programme a picture entitled 'Planed' was made available as a free file download from the BBC and Guardian websites for 48 hours. People who downloaded the files could then print off and assemble the piece, and own an original Gilbert and George picture for free.

A book of their art, The Complete Pictures, 1971–2005, published in early 2007, by Tate Modern, includes over a thousand of their pictures. The works average out to one work every twelve days for nearly 35 years. [1]

[edit] Awards

They won the Turner Prize in 1986, South Bank Award 2007, Lorenzo il Magnifico Award (Florence) 2007, Special International Award (LA) 1989, Regione lazio Award (Torino) 1981, and represented the UK at the 2005 Venice Biennale.

They were awarded an Honorary Doctorate by London Metropolitan University in December 2008.

[edit] Trivia

 Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (June 2007)
  • Martin Clunes, while a struggling young actor in the early 1980s, was a photo model for Gilbert and George. He can be recognised in their 1983 picture 'World'.
  • For thirty years, Gilbert and George breakfasted and lunched at the Market Cafe in Spitalfields near their house. They were great friends of the owners and often to be found in the cafe and even helped clearing the tables.
  • They have their own dance called the 'bend-it'.
  • The pair own one of the most powerful graphics workstation computers in the UK, needed to manipulate the huge file-sizes that producing their art requires.
  • The pair inspired two characters, Man Green and Man Yellow, Chief Constables of the Science Gestapo, in Grant Morrison's comicbook series The Filth. The two characters appear in pastiches of Gilbert and George's artwork, with the separate sections of the imagery acting as individual comic book panels.
  • They have dinner in the same Kurdish restaurant in Dalston at the same time every night. Gilbert and George walk there and return by bus or minicab. [1]
  • Billy Bragg, socialist English pop singer, refers to Gilbert and George in the chorus of "Take Down the Union Jack" on the 2002 album England, Half English.
  • In the book Man, Machine and Music, Pascale Bussy claims that the look Kraftwerk adopted between 1974 and 1978 was partly inspired by Gilbert and George.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Robert Ayers (August 14, 2007), Gilbert & George Are Workaholics, ARTINFO, http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/25490/gilbert-george-are-workaholics/, retrieved on 2008-04-15 

[edit] Further reading

  • Robin Dutt, Gilbert & George: Obsessions & Compulsions. London: Philip Wilson Publishers, 2004. ISBN 0 85667 570 9
  • Gilbert & George: The Complete Pictures, Rudi Fuchs, Tate Publishing, 2007. ISBN 9781854376817
  • Daniel Farson (2000). Gilbert and George: A Portrait. HarperCollins. London, 2000.
  • White Cube, London. "Sonofagod Pictures", 2006
  • "Intimate Conversation", Francois Jonquet, Phaidon, London, 2005
  • "Gilbert & George, E1", Isabelle Baudino, Marie Gautheron & others, ENS Editions, lyon, 2005
  • Robert Rosenblum, "Introducing Gilbert & George", Thames & Hudson, London, 2004
  • "Perversive Pictures 2004", Sonnabend Gallery/Lehmann Maupin, New York, 2004
  • "Thirteen Hooligan Pictures", Gallery Bernier/Eliades, Athens, 2004
  • "London E1 Pictures", Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, 2004
  • "New Horny Pictures", White Cube, London, 2001
  • Daniel Farson, "Gilbert & George: A Portrait", Harper Colins, London, 1999
  • Daniel Farson, "With Gilbert & George in Moscow", Bloomsbury, London, 1991

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_and_George"
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