Since the early 1970S, the duo has been bringing to the world an idea of “Art For All”, performing as living sculptures within the images and performances they conceive
In 1967 Gilbert Proesch, born in the Italian Dolomites in 1943, and George Passmore, a native of Devon, England, born in 1942, met at Saint Martins School of Art in London, studying sculpture. Together, approaching artistic practice so that it would overcome the elitist dimension that they had carved out for themselves under the motto of “Art for All,” they focused their work first on performance and then on video, passing through photography, drawing and collage, dealing with political, religious and moral issues, always bringing themselves – in the role of living sculptures – into the work, and using the filter of a sharp irony. A duo, that formed by Gilbert & George, long-lived, but still among the most influential in the international art scene.
Gilbert & George at the entrance of the Gilbert & George Centre. Photo Yu Yigang © Gilbert & George
The Gilbert & George Center in London
At the beginning of April 2023, this well-trodden existential and artistic partnership found a home at 5 Heneage Street, Spitalfields, inside a former Victorian-era industrial building adjacent to the duo’s historic Fournier Street studio (and home). Announced some time ago, the Gilbert & George Centre in London opened to the public on the first day of the month, configuring itself as a permanent exhibition space developed over 280 square meters. Working closely with Gilbert & George on the project was the architectural firm SIRS, which rethought the spaces of the property purchased in 2015, precisely with the idea of creating a kind of museum that would collect the work of the duo, who had already founded the eponymous charity in 2009, promoted to foster public education in art. And always favoring the principle of “Art for All,” the new Center welcomes visitors free of charge as they pass through the green gate with the golden monogram of King Charles.
Gilbert & George, Curl, from The Paradisical Pictures series, 2019. Courtesy Gilbert & George
Upcoming exhibitions at the Gilbert & George Center
There are three exhibition spaces, each connoted by a specific identity, which while taking into account the building’s history has been adapted to the needs of the duo’s professed creative vision. Each year, the center will host a pair of exhibitions focusing on Gilbert & George’s work, starting with the inaugural project designed to celebrate The Paradisical Pictures series (2019), which shows the duo in a colorful and imaginative, even hallucinatory and psychedelic world populated with flowers, trees, fruits and fantastical creatures. Initially, the space will be open only on weekends, Friday through Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., to gradually expand the opening days and useful appointments (some for a fee) to visit the Center. And even the choice of the inaugural date, April Fools’ Day (April fools) seems to fit the personality of the two artists, ironic and irreverent.