Scan Magazine | Special Theme | Culture in Sweden
Beardary, 2016. © Gilbert & George
Gilbert & George — two men, one artist For more than 50 years, the iconic duo Gilbert & George have challenged all conventions with a disregard for what might be considered ‘good taste’. Now showing at Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Gilbert & George: The Great Exhibition is a manifesto of their life and work. By Malin Norman | Photos: Åsa Lundén/Moderna Museet
Gilbert & George met at Saint Martin’s School of Art in London, fell in love and have since then dedicated their life to their art. “They have been working together for over 50 years and have created their own style and way of being artists,” says Olle Eriksson, exhibition producer at Moderna Museet. “It’s not possible to draw a line between their life and their art.” The art of the married couple is centred around their life in London, a mix of misery and luxury. Since the late 1960s, they have resided in Spitalfields, at the time a run-down area and now a diverse hub in the East End. Eriksson explains: “Gilbert 32 | Issue 122 | March 2019
& George have documented London and its inhabitants from the 1960s to today. You can see a fantastic change in the city by looking at their pictures. And instead of criticising change in society, they are embracing and celebrating it.”
Eventually, they started creating pictures under the motto ‘Art for All’. With their unique printing technique developed in the 1970s, the art grew larger and bolder, often dealing with existential questions in works such as Death, Fear, Hope, Life (1984), Shitty, Naked, Human, World (1994) and Sex, Money, Race, Religion (2016).
Living sculptures From the start, Gilbert & George became a form of living sculptures to communicate their artistic vision, as they simply could not afford a studio. In the 1970s, they became known as The Singing Sculpture, with a performance of the song from 1932 by Flanagan and Allen called Underneath the Arches, about homelessness during the Depression.
Armed Faith, 1982. © Gilbert & George