Gilbert and George are a fabulously artist couple, who are
known worldwide for their distinctive and highly formal appearance as much as their
brightly coloured graphic-style photo-based artworks. They were listed as among
the fifty best-dressed over 50s by the Guardian in March 2013. The suits they wear
have become a sort of uniform for them, they rarely appear in public without
wearing them. It is also unusual for one of the pair to be seen without the
other. The pair regards themselves as "living sculptures".
Thank Thatcher For Art Boom, Say
Gilbert & George
"Left equals good. Art equals Left. Pop
stars and artists are meant to be so original. So how come everyone has the
same opinion? ... We admire Margaret Thatcher greatly. She did a lot for art.
Socialism wants everyone to be equal. We want to be different." -
Gilbert & George are an oddity
in the artistic world because of their openly conservative political views and
their praise for Margaret Thatcher George claims never to have been
anti-establishment. They love Margaret Thatcher. as they say it was her who
helped to get living artists recognised and make them money - "Because she
deregulated everything, so they could become rich, the artists, for the first
time. Before that they had to be art-school teachers mostly."
The couple are best known for their huge artworks which
started mainly in black and white but as time progressed primary and secondary colours
were introduced to them –this has inspired my stained glass window experimentations-
they proceed to use a range of colours and often overlayed their works with
black grids made of longitudal and
latitudal lines. Their many works have addressed a variety of subject matter
such as religion and patriotism but has had mixed reviews as a result of this.
The couple referred to their works as sculptures although
most of them weren’t, between 1970-74 they also produced many drawings referred
to as charcoal on paper sculptures to expand their identity as ‘living
sculptures’. Their own desire to create an ‘art for life’s sake’ and an ‘art
for all’ expresses their beliefs that art can break down all barriers.
Their attitude to religion as a whole was hugely negative as
a homosexual couple they looked to religious views and were disgusted by them. They
stated “THE POPE SHOULD BE DRAGGED TO THE COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEALT WITH
LIKE MILOSEVIC. HE SAYS THAT HOMOSEXAUL PEOPLE ARE INTRINISICALLY DISOREDERED.
HE HAS CAUSED DEATH BY RESFUSING TO ALLOW THE USE OF CONTRACEPTION”
The couples view of religion is evidently shown in the below
piece, with the crucifiction of jesus being one of the main themes within the
image they are advertising the death of Christ and are showing this as one way
to ‘ban religion’. The colours used are hugely significant to this piece as red
is the colour associated with passion, and hell, and they are therefore showing
that they are passionate about Jesus dyeing and insinuating that he went to
hell when he died, the colour is again symbolic as red symbolises anger and the
expression shown on Gilbert and Georges faces are clear anger at religion, they
are also in black and white which could symbolise them being branded by old
outdated religion.
Their works are often compared to those of Andy Warhol in his
Pop Art days due to their use of colours etc.
Only in my home town of Liverpool would you find a street
entertainer who is influenced by Gilbert and George
