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Gilbert & George
“Art for all” is the belief that underpins Gilbert & George’s art. Their trademark format is the large grid, a square or rectangular picture broken into sections that becomes a unified field of signs and images.
Gilbert & George began working together in 1967 when they met at St Martins School of Art, and from the beginning, in their films and ‘living sculpture’ they appeared as figures in their own work. Gilbert & George believe that everything is potential subject matter for their work, and they have always addressed social issues, taboos and artistic conventions. Implicit in their work is the idea that an artist’s sacrifice and personal investment is a necessary condition of art. They have depicted themselves as naked figures in their own work, recasting the male nude as something vulnerable and fragile rather than as a potent figure of strength. Of their most recent show at White Cube, ‘SONOFAGOD PICTURES’ (2006), Michael Bracewell wrote, “lustrous, ornate, pictorially complex, vividly coloured, yet suffused with tenebrous solemnity, they have all of the dramatic visual impact which one might expect to find in neo-Gothic medievalism – in Victorian reclamations of Celtic or Moorish symbolism, for example, regally bejewelled and portentous with romantic mysticism. At the same time, however, the SONOFAGOD PICTURES possess a darkly graven strangeness, at once archaic and ultra-modern, in which their temper no less than their signage appears deeply contemporary, ritualistic and disturbed.”
Gilbert was born in the Dolomites, Italy in 1943; George was born in Devon in 1942 and both live and work in London. Together they have participated in many important group and solo exhibitions including The Venice Biennale (2005), Turner Prize (1984) and Carnegie International (1985). They have had extensive solo exhibitions, including, Whitechapel Art Gallery (1971-1972), National Gallery, Beijing (1993), Shanghai Art Museum (1993), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1995-1996), Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (1998), Serpentine Gallery, London (2002), Kunsthaus Bregenz (2002) and Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover (2004-2005).
More on Gilbert & George
| Artworks | |
 | Early works I 4 Images |
 | Early works III 4 Images |
 | Early works II 3 Images |
 | Gingko I 4 Images |
 | Ginkgo II 4 Images |
 | Ginkgo III 4 Images |
 | Ginkgo IV 3 Images |
 | Ginkgo VI 4 Images |
 | Related Texts |
| CV | |
| Bibliography | |
| SONOFAGOD PICTURES Was Jesus Heterosexual? by Michael Bracewell | |
| Exhibitions | |
| SONOFAGOD PICTURES Was Jesus Heterosexual? 20 Jan—25 Feb 2006 | |
| New Horny Pictures 2 Jun—15 Jul 2001 | |
| Editions | |
| Fruiters Edition of 100 | |
| Perv Duo Desecrate Tate Modern: Pictures Edition of 250 | |
| Artist's Publications | |
| The Complete Pictures, 1971-2005 2007 | |
| Ginkgo Pictures. Venice Biennale 2005 2005 | |
| Introducing Gilbert & George 2004 | |
| News | |
| Gilbert & George retrospective tours to Milwaukee Art Museum 14 Jun 2008 | |
 | Related Links |
| http://www.guggenheimcollec... Guggenheim Museum, New York | |
| http://www.nationalgallerie... National Galleries of Scotland Online | |
| http://www.tate.org.uk/mode... Tate Modern, London | |
| http://www.tate.org.uk/serv... Tate Online | |
 | Back to Artist Index |