Gilbert and George: A Portrait - Softcover

Farson, Daniel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 000638885X ISBN 13: 9780006388852

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2000

Synopsis

The candid, revealing inside story of one of the great and most original art acts of our time: the enigmatic ‘living sculptures’ based in Spitalfields in London’s East End.

Gilbert and George are unquestionably among the most important and original artists of our time. Critics have come to recognise the artists’ vision and to regard some of their works as among the major pictures of the century.

Gilbert (from the Italian Dolomites) and George (from Totnes) met at St Martin’s School of Art in the late 1960s and formed an immediate friendship. This is an engagingly informal portrait in which they reminisce about their family upbringing, their friendship, life in Spitalfields, and their relish of the mixed cultures of the East End. With their distinctive trademark single-breasted, three-button suits and their famously studied but courteous composure, Gilbert and George set out as artists without a gallery. From living, and singing, sculptures, they developed a line in controversial subject matter that extends from the Dirty Words Pictures to The Naked Shit and The Fundamental pictures. As exponents of photo-based art, they are, as writer David Sylvester has remarked, perhaps second only to Andy Warhol.

About this title

About the Author

Daniel Farson was born in 1927 and died in November 1997, the year his autobiography Never a Normal Man was published to widespread acclaim. The manuscript of Gilbert & George was on his desk when he died at home in Appledore. He was a pioneering television reporter and interviewer, photographer, art critic, legendary bohemian, pub-owner and exotic traveller. His friends included Francis Bacon, Caitlin Thomas, John Deakin and many others. He wrote biographies of Jack the Ripper, his own great-grand-uncle Bram Stoker, and Francis Bacon, and his other books included Soho in the Fifties and With Gilbert & George in Moscow.

From the Back Cover

Gilbert & George are unquestionably among the most important and original artists of our time, and in Daniel Farson they found both a doughty (if critical) champion and a stimulating companion. As exponents of photo-based art, they are, as writer David Sylvester has remarked, perhaps second only to Andy Warhol. In this delightfully candid and engagingly informal portrait, Gilbert & George reminisce about their family upbringing in the country (George in Totnes, Gilbert in the Italian Dolomites), their life in Spitalfields in London's East End and the development of their art from living, singing sculptures to a line in controversial subject matter that extends from the Dirty Words pictures to The Naked Shit Pictures and The Fundamental Pictures.

"Touching and illuminating."
EDMUND WHITE, 'London Review of Books'

"Good lively stuff."
GEORGE MELLY, 'Sunday Telegraph'

Entertaining, affectionate, respectful, mercilessly free of jargon."
ALAN ROSS, 'London Magazine'

"A charming affectionate memoir … vividly conveys the fun of touring the world with G & G and being part of their inner circle."
LYNN BARBER, 'Daily Telegraph'

"An engaging joie de vivre which sweeps you along. The book is a good and easy read … One of its merits is that it makes clear what charming, convivial, generous and delightful company C & G are."
MARTIN GAYFORD 'Spectator'

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 000638885X
• ISBN 13: 9780006388852
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256