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5 Things You Didn't Know About Gilbert & George

Italian Gilbert Prousch and British Southerner George Passmore compile to make the duo, Gilbert & George. They are known for both their highly formal appearance and their brightly coloured graphic-style photo-based artworks. As their latest exhibition, 'Scapegoating' opened in Bermondsey's The White Cube last week, we bring you five things you might not known about the anti-elitest, East London based artists.

By Charlotte Broomfield | 24 Jul 2014

Italian Gilbert Prousch and British Southerner George Passmore compile to make the duo, Gilbert & George. They are known for both their highly formal appearance and their brightly coloured graphic-style photo-based artworks. As their latest exhibition, 'Scapegoating' opened in Bermondsey's The White Cube last week, we bring you five things you might not known about the anti-elitest, East London based artists.

Images from 'Scapegoating'
Gilbert & George
Images sourced from BBC

THING 1: Describing themselves as "living sculptures", Gilbert & George remain at the centre of the images they produce, as they have done throughout their career. They refuse to disassociate their art from their everyday lives, insisting that everything they do is art. That's why they're rarely seen alone nor dressed deviant from their staple uniform of suit and tie.

Images from 'Scapegoating'
Gilbert & George
Images sourced from BBC

THING 2: For many years, Gilbert & George have been residents of Fournier Street, Spitalfields, East London. Their entire body of work has been created in, and focused on, London's East End, which they see as a microcosm. According to George, "Nothing happens in the world that doesn't happen in the East End."

THING 3: Gilbert and George's approach to art has always been anti-elitist. Adopting the slogan ‘Art for All’, they aimed to be relevant beyond the narrow confines of the art world.

Images from 'Scapegoating'
Gilbert & George
Images sourced from BBC

THING 4: Gilbert & George are an oddity in the artistic world because of their openly conservative political views and their praise for Margaret Thatcher. George claims never to have been anti-establishment, stating that, "you're not allowed to be Conservative in the art world, of course", "Left equals good. Art equals Left."
  THING 5: Of their new exhibition 'Scapegoating', White Cube says the pictures describe "a world in which paranoia, fundamentalism, surveillance, religion, accusation and victimhood become moral shades of the city's temper".   If you enjoyed this article, take our ART STYLE QUIZ and BECOME A MEMBER. It is free and you'll get access to the best new art from top Museums, Galleries and Artists.

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