FaithfulTees: Gilbert & George!

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.