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拍品專文
‘We don’t have to travel the world to find subjects, because we’re just looking for the subjects that are inside you. What are your hopes or fears about the people on the corner, the church, the sky, the police, the wet pavement?’ GILBERT & GEORGE
An outstanding contribution to the history of Minimalist, Conceptual and Performance Art, Gilbert & George’s five-decade relationship as a single artist has redefined the connection between art and life. However their early adaptation of photography as their chosen medium has also arguably impacted on attitudes towards photography as an artistic medium. By putting multiple photographic prints together in a monumental collage, Gilbert & George were able to create large-scale compositions the like of which had never been seen before. Gilbert & George have lived together in a house on Fournier Street, Spitalfields, since 1968, having met the previous year at St. Martin’s School of Art. They regard themselves as one artist, their lives as total works of art, and the East End as a microcosm for the world. ‘We always feel that we never have to go far’, says George. ‘We don’t have to travel the world to find subjects, because we’re just looking for the subjects that are inside you. What are your hopes or fears about the people on the corner, the church, the sky, the police, the wet pavement? So you don’t need to go anywhere except just outside the front door for that’ (G. Passmore, quoted in M. Gayford, ‘Interview’, in Gilbert and George, exh. cat. Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Bologna 1996, p. 89). This anti-elitist sense of a universal artistic language, grounded in ideas and sensations that we all share, lends an instant appeal to Gilbert & George’s work. Their unique idiom stands apart from the avant-garde movements of their time: declaring their intentions with the slogan ‘Art for All’, they were brought together by a rejection of the clinical detachment of Pop art and Minimalism, and the cold prioritisation of ideas over form in Conceptual art. Indeed, the grid format they employ seems to riff on the Minimalism of the 1960s, flooding its stark framework with personality, image and feeling. They subvert the chill of Conceptual art by using real snapshots of their lives, making work as intimate as it is sophisticated.
An outstanding contribution to the history of Minimalist, Conceptual and Performance Art, Gilbert & George’s five-decade relationship as a single artist has redefined the connection between art and life. However their early adaptation of photography as their chosen medium has also arguably impacted on attitudes towards photography as an artistic medium. By putting multiple photographic prints together in a monumental collage, Gilbert & George were able to create large-scale compositions the like of which had never been seen before. Gilbert & George have lived together in a house on Fournier Street, Spitalfields, since 1968, having met the previous year at St. Martin’s School of Art. They regard themselves as one artist, their lives as total works of art, and the East End as a microcosm for the world. ‘We always feel that we never have to go far’, says George. ‘We don’t have to travel the world to find subjects, because we’re just looking for the subjects that are inside you. What are your hopes or fears about the people on the corner, the church, the sky, the police, the wet pavement? So you don’t need to go anywhere except just outside the front door for that’ (G. Passmore, quoted in M. Gayford, ‘Interview’, in Gilbert and George, exh. cat. Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Bologna 1996, p. 89). This anti-elitist sense of a universal artistic language, grounded in ideas and sensations that we all share, lends an instant appeal to Gilbert & George’s work. Their unique idiom stands apart from the avant-garde movements of their time: declaring their intentions with the slogan ‘Art for All’, they were brought together by a rejection of the clinical detachment of Pop art and Minimalism, and the cold prioritisation of ideas over form in Conceptual art. Indeed, the grid format they employ seems to riff on the Minimalism of the 1960s, flooding its stark framework with personality, image and feeling. They subvert the chill of Conceptual art by using real snapshots of their lives, making work as intimate as it is sophisticated.