Gilbert & George

Gilbert
born 1943 in the Dolomites, Italy
lives and works in London, England

George
born 1942 in Devon, England
lives and works in London, England

 

 

George Passmore and Gilbert Proesch met when they were students at St Martins School of Art, London. Their first major artwork, The Singing Sculpture, ‘happened by mistake’, according to Gilbert. ‘At the end of the year, we posed with our sculptures, but we realised we didn’t need them. That was when we realised we didn’t believe in objects’ (Tate Etc, issue 9, spring 2007). The piece was initially shown at art schools and wherever they could present it. It gained momentum and was shown 26 times between 1969 and 1972, in Germany, Italy, Belgium, Norway and Switzerland, and at the newly opened Sonnabend Gallery in New York, before they brought it to in Australia in 1973 for their Kaldor project. In 1991, the sculpture was ‘dusted off’ for the anniversary exhibition of Sonnabend Gallery.

‘Art for all’ is the belief that underpins Gilbert & George’s art. They began to create films and pictures when they realised that presentations like The Singing Sculpture were extremely limited in the amount of people they could reach. These works extended the idea of living sculpture in a different form.

Almost all of the images, which include images of themselves, are gathered within walking distance of their home in London’s East End. By 1975, they were producing large-format pictures, overlaid with black grids, which capture a broad range of human experience, encompassing an unexpected gamut of emotions and themes – from romantic pastoral images to urban settings of a deteriorating London, from commercial pornographic material to images of religious fanaticism. By the late 1980s, they were creating stained-glass colourised photo-pieces incorporating faeces and bodily fluids in reaction to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

In 2008, Gilbert & George were the subject of the largest retrospective exhibition ever staged by London’s Tate Modern.

Read more about Gilbert & George’s 1973 Kaldor project.

See also
Gilbert & George, White Cube
Gilbert & George, Tate Modern

 

COLLECTION CONNECTIONS

Relevant works from the Art Gallery of NSW collection

The Gallery has a significant collection of performance documentation including photographs and DVDs. It includes notable holdings of the work of Rudolf Schwarzkogler, Carolee Schneemann, Vito Acconci and Joseph Beuys.
 
Gilbert & George
Reaming 1982

Marina Abramovic
Ulay

Gold found by the artists 1981 from the series Nightsea crossing 1981–86

Shaun Gladwell
Woolloomooloo (night) 2005

Stelarc
Street suspension 1984

Ken Unsworth
Five secular settings for sculpture as ritual and burial piece 1975