Partners

Gilbert & George (1943 -) (1942 -) British artists that work together since 1968. Gilbert Proesch was born in San Martino in the Italian Dolomites. He arrived at Central St Martin's Art School in London in 1967, at the time he could not speak English. George Passmore was born in Plymouth, Devon and in 1965 he was attending the Advanced Sculpture course at Central St Martin's Art School in London. They met at Central St Martin's School of Art in 1967. The basic aim of their art seemed to be to annoy. While still at St Martin's they developed their famous routines that they called Singing Sculptures.They did their first show at Frank's Sandwich Bar in London in 1968.They set up an office in Fournier Street, Spitalfields, east London. They offered themselves as living sculptures. They felt slighted when not included in a London exhibition in 1968 of new Minimal and Conceptual Art, When Attitude Became Form. They responded by painting their heads and standing motionless in the centre of the gallery on the opening night. As a result the German dealer Konrad Fischer offered them a show at the Düsseldorf Kunsthalle. From this point their international career took off. Gilbert & George always appear in public in identical suits. This is used as an icon in their paintings. They made appearances at the Robert Fraser Gallery, Nigel Greenwood Inc, Robert Self and Anthony d'Offay galleries. They also did a number of shows at the Whitechapel Art Gallery and the Hayward Gallery. In 1997 the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris did a 30-year retrospective. 2001 Major exhibition at the Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon.

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