Gilbert & George Biography and Artwork

born Paris (FRANCE) 1934 died Paris (FRANCE) 2002

Gilbert Prousch (born in South Tyrol, Italy, September 11, 1943) and George Passmore (born in England January 8, 1942), better known as Gilbert & George, are artists. They have worked almost exclusively as a pair.

Gilbert was born in St. Martin in Thurn/Dolomites in South Tyrol/Italy, and studied art at the Wolkenstein School of Art and Hallein School of Art, 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. The two first met on 25th 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, London. The two claim they came together because George was the only person who could understand Gilbert's rather poor spoken English.

In a 2002 interview with The Daily Telegraph they said of their meeting: "it was love at first sight." (Telegraph, 2002.05.28). It is widely assumed that Gilbert & George are lovers, although they always dismiss questions about their sex lives. They were initially known as performance artists. While still students they made The Singing Sculpture (1970), for which they covered themselves in gold metallic paint, stood on a table, and mimed to a recording of Flanagan and Allen's song "Underneath the Arches", sometimes for hours at a time.

A number of works from the early 1970s consisted of the two of them getting drunk, usually on gin. Smashed (1973) was a set of photographs documenting a drunken evening, while Gordon's Makes Us Drunk is a film of the pair drinking Gordon's gin, occasionally saying "Gordon's makes us very drunk" and listening to classical music. This work, in common with many others by Gilbert and George, is executed in a completely deadpan way.

The matching business suits which they wore for these performances 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 performances from their everyday lives, insisting that everything they do is art. The pair regard themselves as "living sculptures".

The pair are perhaps best known for their large scale photo-montages, such as "Cosmological Pictures" (1993), frequently tinted in extremely bright colours, backlit, and overlaid with black grids so as to resemble stained glass windows. Gilbert & George themselves often feature in these works, along with flowers and youths, their friends, and echoes of Christian symbolism. The early works in this style were in black and white, with red and yellow touches in later series. Later these works moved to use a range of bold colours.

Their 2005 work, "Sonofagod", has returned to a more sombre and darker palette. Some series 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 series, such as "Naked Shit Paintings" (1995), has also contributed to media attention. In 1986 Gilbert and George attracted criticism from left-wing commentators for a series of works seemingly glamorizing 'rough types' of London's East End such as skinheads, while a picture of an asian man bore the derogatory title "Paki".

For many years they have been residents of Spitalfields, East London. In 2000 they moved Galleries to be represented by White Cube. They won the Turner Prize in 1986, and represented the UK at the 2005 Venice Biennale.

Select Timeline

Select Exhibitions

• 1995 - The Singing Sculpture, CAPC Musee d'Art Contemporain, Bordeaux, France
• 1995 - The Naked Shit Pictures, South London Art Gallery, London, England
• 1995 - Gilbert & George, Galerie Nikolas Sonne, Berlin, Germany
• 1995 - Endurance: The Information, Exit Art, New York, NY
• 1995 - Take Me (I'm Yours), Serpentine Gallery, London, Great Britain
• 1995 - Attitudes/Sculptures, 1963-1972, CAPC, Musee d'art Contemporain, Bordeaux, France
• 1995 - 20/20 In Khan, NY
• 1995 - Human/Nature Benefit Exhibition, The New Museum, New York, NY
• 1996 - Gilbert & George, Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy
• 1996 - The Naked Shit Pictures, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
• 1996 - La Vie Moderne en Europe 1870-1996, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
• 1997 - The Fundamental Pictures, Sonnabend Gallery and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York, NY
• 1997 - Gilbert & George, Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
• 1997 - Gilbert & George: Art for All 1971 - 1992, Sezon Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan
• 1997 - Gilbert & George Art, Magasin 3, Stockholm, Sweden
• 1997 - Treasure Island, Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal
• 1997 - Das Zwanzigste Jahrhundert Zeitgeist-Gesellschaft, Berlin, Germany
• 1997 - '97 Kwangju Biennale Unmapping the Earth, Kwangju, Korea
• 1997 - Galerie Thaddeaus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria
• 1998 - New Testamental Pictures, Museo di Capodimonte, Naples
• 1998 - Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Object, 1949-1979, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
• 1998 - Photoplay, George Eastman House, Rochester, NY
• 1998 - Selected Works from The Fundamental Pictures, Massimo Martino Fine Arts & Projects, Switzerland
• 1998 - New Testamental Pictures, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris
• 1998 - New Testamental Pictures, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg
• 1998 - Black White and Red 1971 to 1980, James Cohan Gallery, New York
• 1999 - Gilbert & George 1970-1988, Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst, Oslo
• 1999 - Gilbert & George 1986-1997, Drassanes, Valencia
• 1999 - The Rudimentary Pictures, Milton Keynes Gallery, Milton Keynes
• 1999 - Gilbert & George 1991-1997, Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast
• 2000 - Gilbert & George, Parkhaus, Dusseldorf
• 2000 - Zig-Zag. Pictures 2000, FIAC, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris
• 2000 - Nineteen Ninety Nine, 1999, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung, Vienna
• 2000 - MM 2000; Biennale de Lyon, Halle Tony Garnier
• 2000 - Nineteen Ninety Nine, 1999, Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Chicago
• 2000 - Inner Eye: Contemporary Art from the Marc and Livia Straus Collection, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY
• 2000 - Out There, White Cube 2, Hoxton Square, London
• 2000 - The Rudimentary Pictures, Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles
• 2001 - Gilbert & George, Chateau d'Arenthon Fondation pour l'Art Contemporain, Alex(Annency)
• 2001 - New Horny Pictures, White Cube2, London
• 2001 - The Art of Gilbert and George,' The Factory, Athens School of Art
• 2002 - Perversive Pictures, Sonnabend Gallery and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, NY
• 2002 - Thirteen Hooligan Pictures, Bernier/Eliades, Athens
• 2002 - 20 London E1 Pictures, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris
• 2002 - 20 London E1 Pictures, Modern Art Museum, St Etienne
• 2002 - The Dirty Words Pictures, Serpentine Gallery, London
• 2002 - Nine Dark Pictures, Portikus, Frankfurt
• 2002 - The Art of Gilbert & George, Fundacao Centro Cultural de Belem, Lisbon, Portugal
• 2002 - From Pop to Now: Selections from the Sonnabend Collection, The Tang
• 2002 - Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York
• 2005 - Gilbert & George, Tate Britain, London
• 2005 - Venice Biennale, British Pavilion
• 2005 - 20 London E1 Pictures, Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover
• 2006 - SONOFAGOD PICTURES Was Jesus Heterosexual?, White Cube, London

Select Artwork

• Fruiters, 2006
• The Singing Sculpture (DVD)
• Prince and Parents, 1981
• Union Jack Knights, 1981
• Excitement (Postcard Sculpture), 1981
• Autumn Faith, 1980

Quotes

• "We don't have anything to say except with our pictures." (Gilbert)
• "We don't want to think. It's exhausting enough without that." (George)
• "We're just Gilbert and George and that's it." (Gilbert)
• "We don't want to know what we are doing. It's much better not to know. You have to express yourselves, once you've finished a group of works you have to start all over again. It's extraordinary stuff - what an artist has to do. You finish a big group of works, then the next day you have to begin again. Forty years we've been doing that." (Gilbert)
• "A clergyman once said to us, "Jealousy is a bad thing. But I must confess that I am sometimes jealous of the artist because the artist is closer to creation." (George)

Publications

• Introducing Gilbert & George - by Robert Rosenblum, Thames & Hudson (June 2004)
• Gilbert & George - by Francois Jonquet, Phaidon Press (April 1, 2005)
• Gilbert and George: Obsessions and Compulsions - by Robin Dutt , Philip Wilson Publishers (April 17, 2004)

Quick Facts

• The pair assumed ownership of a working men's cafe in Spitalfields near their house in the 1990s. For a time they were often to be found in the cafe and even serving behind the counter.
• George was briefly married to a young art student in 1967, until about 1972. They separated but never divorced, because the marriage had produced two children.
• 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 photo montages acting as individual comic book panels.
• The look Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart adopted in the early career of Eurythmics (both dressed in men's suits and ties) was said to be inspired by Gilbert and George.Billy Bragg, socialist English pop singer, refers to Gilbert and George in the chorus of "Take Down the Union Jack" on the 2002 album English, Half English.

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