Gilbert & George
Artists are center stage at the de Young Museum

Gilbert Prousch and George Passmore, better known as Gilbert & George, are artists. They put themselves at the center of their artwork and have worked almost exclusively as a pair.

Identifying as “living sculptures” in art and daily life, they eliminate the distinction between artist and art. They began their career together with a tabletop vaudeville performance piece called The Singing Sculpture. Eventually, they began photographing their performance work to extend its reach and range. Over the years, their art has incorporated film and computer graphics.

They are best known for their large scale photo-montages, frequently tinted in extremely bright colors, backlit, and overlaid with black grids so as to resemble stained glass windows. Gilbert & George themselves often feature in these works, along with flowers and youths, their friends, and echoes of Christian symbolism. The early works in this style were in black and white, with red and yellow touches in later series. Later these works moved to use a range of bold colors.

Some series of their pictures have attracted media attention through including potentially shocking imagery, including nudity, depictions of sex, and bodily fluids. The titling of their series has also contributed to media attention. In 1986 Gilbert and George attracted criticism from left-wing commentators for a series of works seemingly glamorizing 'rough types' of London's East.

Gilbert & George is the largest retrospective ever organized by the Tate Modern in London. The de Young Museum is the first venue in a tour that will visit San Francisco, Milwaukee, and Brooklyn.

Runs through Sat. Feb. 16 – Sun. May 18, 2008 at the de Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco, CA 94118