Life is Art

I HAVE been living in an artistic hinterland … until today. I had never heard of Gilbert & George until this morning when they were interviewed on BBC One’s Breakfast programme. Two dapper gentlemen in their early sixties immaculately dressed in similar, but not identical, suits and ties they sat bolt upright on the grossly tasteless red and yellow studio sofa.

Their art in which they often depict themselves in unusual poses or as boldly coloured collages on a black grid may not necessarily be to my taste, but I felt myself becoming more than a little intrigued by their delightfully eccentric personalities. The term ‘the Eric and Ernie of Art’ formed in my mind even before I went onto the internet to read reviews of their life and work.

Highly organised in their thinking and their work, their art is strangely at odds with their persona. Their work is probably considered to be unconventional and outlandish by many, even today. Hard to imagine then, how their material would have been perceived when they first started out in the late 60s and early 70s. The presenters on Breakfast could barely keep the disgust out of their voices when they touched on the fact that this duo have been known to use bodily fluids to portray their art. I found myself thinking, “why not”, after all ‘life is art’. We’ve seen Damien Hirst’s pickled cow and Tracey Ermin’s unmade bed. Of course, all these ideas are meant to shock, to provoke controversy and discussion, but they are undisputedly all art imitating life and probably vice versa. There may be many art students today who would die to be able to find inspiration such as this.

Gilbert & George have come a long way since their early beginnings. They herald from extremely modest backgrounds and their acquired ‘poshness’ is just part of their surreal art pose. Their works fetch between £40,000 and £200,000 a piece. They reside in a smart apartment in a vibrant multi-cultural corner of East London in which they have converted the garden to studio space where they work and also keep perfectly ordered records of their interviews, exhibitions, press releases, reviews, articles, etc. Outside their art they lead a uniquely individual lifestyle, a bizarre mix of overt indulgence and conservatism, although they are far from right wing or politically correct. They own a distinguished collection of Victorian furniture and ceramics which can be admired throughout their home. They take the bus, but rarely cook at home, preferring to eat breakfast at a Bedouin café nearby and dinner at a Kurdish restaurant. None of their friends are artists, through conscious choice rather than coincidence.

Gilbert Proesch and George Passmore enjoy the easy going relationship of a long-established couple, together with the passion, idealism and romanticism of most artists and many lovers. They exude a contentment and extraordinary rapport with one another which will be envied by many heterosexuals.

18/02/04