Gilbert & George
The Great Exhibition
Schirn Kunsthale Frankfurt
February 12 - May 16, 2021
GILBERT & GEORGE, 2015
Photo: Tom Oldham
GILBERT & GEORGE
LEAFAGE, 1988
Courtesy of Gilbert & George
GILBERT & GEORGE
QUEER, 1977
301 x 251 cm
Courtesy of Gilbert & George
Gilbert & George have been creating art together now for over half a century. Their outstanding body of work is still as explosive as it is significant. The Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt is dedicating an extensive retrospective to the visually powerful and sometimes provocative universe of this eccentric, London-based artist duo, showing works from 1971 until 2019. As both subject and object of their own work, Gilbert & George form a complete artistic unity that draws no distinction between art and life. As “living sculptures,” they embody their art and are both topic and focal point of their large-format collages and screened pictorial worlds. Their work revolves around death, hope, life, fear, sex, money, and religion. These are also societal issues, which they depict in all their contradictions: at once joyful and tragic, grotesque and serious, surreal and symbolic.
GILBERT & GEORGE
CHRISTS, 1992
253 x 426 cm
Private Collection
Courtesy of Gilbert & George
The duo deal with everything that makes us uneasy. Their goal, however, is not to shock, but rather to make visible what is happening in the world, according to their motto “Art for All.” From punks to hipsters, from authorities to outsiders, and from headlines to advertising—Gilbert & George have something to say about it all. By challenging our picture of the world, their works demonstrate, time and again, how forward-thinking they are.
An exhibition by the Luma Foundation and Moderna Museet, Stockholm, in cooperation with the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt.
Curators : Hans Ulrich Obrist and Daniel Birnbaum
SCHIRN KUNSTHALLE FRANKFURT
Römerberg, 60311 Frankfurt
