Gilbert & George
What is Gilbert & George
Details
What is Gilbert & George
Michael Bracewell
Hardcover, 9 1/2 x 6 1/4 in (240 x 160 mm), 160 pages
English Language
About This Book
Gilbert & George met at St Martin’s School of Art in September 1967. Fifty years later, Michael Bracewell has worked with them on this beautifully designed primer, posing the question What Is Gilbert & George? Over the course of 37 short chapters, Bracewell—who has written extensively about Gilbert & George over many years—has created an accessible handbook to their work.
Accompanied by illustrations selected by the artists, the book provides candid insights into their working practice, East London, sex, Victorian art, nationalism and maleness, among many other subjects. We may never find the answer to the question What Is Gilbert & George?, but this book, marking their halfcentury partnership, brings us closer than ever before.
Gilbert was born in Italy in 1943; George was born in the UK in 1942; both live and work in London. They have had extensive solo exhibitions, including at the Whitechapel Gallery (1971–72), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1995–96), Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (1997), Serpentine Gallery, London (2002), Kunsthaus Bregenz (2002), Tate Modern, London, Haus der Kunst, Munich (both 2007), Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, and Philadelphia Museum of Art (both 2008). Novelist and cultural commentator Michael Bracewell (born 1958) first saw the art of Gilbert & George in 1977. He met the artists 20 years later, and has since written extensively about their art and interviewed them many times. His recent publications have included essays on the art of Bridget Riley and Richard Hamilton, as well as the books When Surface Was Depth and Roxy Music.
Gilbert & George
Gilbert & George are an influential collaborative artist duo. Best known for their distinctive brightly colored photo collages, they describe their art as living sculpture. Mostly comprised of large-scale photographs, their oeuvre spans the subjects of traditional black-and-white photography, queer culture, and ultra-violence. Indebted to Pop Art, Conceptualism, and performance art, their work went on to influence the art of the Young British Artists, including Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin. Gilbert Prousch born on September 17, 1943 in Martin Tor, Italy and George Passmore born on January 8, 1942 in Plymouth, United Kingdom, met and fell in love in 1967 while studying at Saint Martin's School of Art in London. The artists have enjoyed decades of critical and popular acclaim, including a retrospective at the Tate Modern in London and representing the United Kingdom at the 2005 Venice Biennale.
