We are two people, but one artist
— Gilbert & George
Gilbert & George are British artists who have worked collaboratively as a single artistic entity since the late 1960s. Central to their practice is the concept of “living sculpture,” through which they have fully integrated their lives, public presence, and artistic production for over five decades. As both authors and subjects of their work, Gilbert & George regard their entire existence as an ongoing sculptural project, grounded in the belief that personal commitment is an essential condition of art.
Meeting in 1967 while studying sculpture at St. Martin’s School of Art in London, the artists—George Passmore (b. 1942, Devon, England) and Gilbert Prousch (b. 1943, Dolomites, Italy)—forged a distinct path at a moment when Minimalism and Conceptual art dominated critical discourse. A decisive early moment came in 1970, when Gilbert & George first exhibited with Konrad Fischer. Their first solo exhibition at Fischer’s Düsseldorf gallery marked their breakthrough, presenting early articulations of “Living Sculpture” in a gallery context and resulting in the sale of the seminal work Walking, Viewing, Relaxing.
Rejecting artistic detachment, Gilbert & George positioned themselves as the embodiment of their art, classifying works across media as forms of sculpture, including Postal Sculptures, Drinking Sculptures, Charcoal on Paper Sculptures, and Video Sculptures. Their work addresses the modern world in its entirety. Drawing on daily walks through the East End of London, their art reflects the psychological, social, and moral dimensions of contemporary urban life. Their imagery confronts themes such as sexuality, identity, religion, violence, prejudice, addiction, and mortality, while challenging prevailing tastes and conventions within contemporary art. Balancing emotional intensity with formal discipline, their work combines realism with a heightened sense of romanticism, finding significance and affect in the ordinary.
Committed to the idea that art should engage both feeling and intellect, Gilbert & George seek to depict the world with directness and urgency. They maintain that each artwork and exhibition produces a subtle but real transformation of the artist, the viewer, and the world itself.
Their international influence has been recognized through numerous awards, including the Turner Prize (1986), and their representation of the United Kingdom at the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005. Their work is held in major public collections worldwide, including Tate (London), the National Galleries of Scotland (Edinburgh), MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York), the Art Institute of Chicago, SFMOMA, the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), Museum Ludwig (Cologne), MAXXI (Rome), the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and Castello di Rivoli (Turin).