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Gilbert & George

Gilbert was born in 1943 in Dolomites, Italy
George was born in 1942 in Devon, UK
They both live and work in collaboration in London

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Figures, cityscapes, symbols, plants, bodily fluids, excrements and text interlock in pictorial messages as visually powerful as their content is provocative. The pictures, which started out in black and white and later assumed increasingly luminous, bold colors, generally also depict portraits of the artists themselves and seize on taboo subjects like sexuality, race, religion and national identity with a brash and fearless candor. The Jack Freak Pictures series from 2008 again feature the bodies and/or faces of the artists. In these compositions, their bodies function as stylized representatives of the individual in society, whose relationship to social norms and categories, to national, religious and sexual identification processes is relentlessly explored and commented upon. Departing from their earlier oeuvre, some of their new pictures split the raw images into much smaller fragments before merging them into new forms. The result is a fascinating kaleidoscopic mix of the monstrously grotesque with an intricate ornamental structure reminiscent of sacred art.

In 1967 GILBERT & GEORGE met at St. Martin’s School of Art in Anthony Caro’s sculpture class. They have lived and worked together in London ever since. The duo has accumulated a long list of international distinctions and exhibitions at major institutions. They were awarded the Turner Prize in 1986, a prize they had already been nominated for two years earlier, and represented the UK at the 51st Venice Biennial in 2005. Recently, their second retrospective was staged at the Brooklyn Museum, New York (2008/09), the Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany (2007), and the Tate Modern, London (2007). Further solo exhibitions have been held at the Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht (2006), Serpentine Gallery, London (2002), Kunstmuseum Bonn (1999), Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris (1997), National Art Gallery, Beijing (1993), the Secession, Vienna (1992), Guggenheim Museum, New York (1985), and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1971 und 1996).
A touring exhibition of the “Jack Freak Pictures” will be shown at the following venues: Centro de Arte Contemporáneo (CAC) Málaga, Spain (05.02–09.05.2010), Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Croatia (10.06– 26.09.2010), Palais des Beaux Arts (Bozar), Bruxelles (28.10.2010–23. 01.2011); Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany (24.02.– 22.05.2011); Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz, Austria (17.06.– 09.10.2011); Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art, Gdansk, Poland (10.11.2011–Feb. 2012).

EXHIBITIONS:
30.04. – 27.08.2011
"THE URETHRA POSTCARD ART"
Solo exhibition at ARNDT Berlin
CATALOGUE AVAILABLE

13.06.–18.09.2009
"JACK FREAK PICTURES"
Solo exhibtion at Arndt & Partner, Berlin
CATALOGUE AVAILABLE

Gilbert & George, ARMED, from: LONDON PICTURES, 2011, 9 panels , 226 x 190 cm | 88.98 x 74.8 in, # GILB0122