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27/10/2010

Gilbert & George

Bozar - Centre for Fine Arts, Bruxelles

The Centre for Fine Arts presents a major new exhibition by the art world’s most enduring duo Gilbert & George. The Jack Freak Pictures comprise the largest group of pictures created to date by Gilbert & George, 153 in total, and are a consolidation of the themes to be found in their art over the last forty years: urban life, race, sexuality, nationalism, religion, death, hope, life, fear. The clarity of vision and powerful emotion in the visual language of Gilbert & George remains stronger than ever in this extraordinary new group of pictures, about eighty-five of which will be shown at the Centre for Fine Arts in autumn 2010.

The Jack Freak Pictures feature distinctive pictorial elements and of course the artists themselves, seen in various guises and with contorted bodies, intermingled with geometric and figurative patterns. The most dominant pictorial element is the Union Jack, itself both an internationally familiar, geometric pattern, and a politically charged symbol, the significance of which spans the cultural spectrum from contemporary fashion to aggressive national pride.

Gilbert & George have exhibited at the Centre of Fine Arts twice before: in 1973 in the exhibition From Henry Moore to Gilbert & George, which was presented under the framework of ‘Europalia Great-Britain’; and again in 1986, with their important survey exhibition, Gilbert & George: The Complete Pictures 1971-1985.

This exhibition of the Jack Freak Pictures is presented in association with the British Council, and after the showing at the Centre for Fine Arts, will tour to Hamburg (Deichtorhallen), Linz (Lentos Kunstmuseum) and Gdansk (Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art).

Gilbert & George
Gilbert (Dolomiles, Italy, 1943) and George (Devon, England, 1942) met at Saint Martin's School of Art in London in 1967. At the end of the 1960s they triumphed on the international scene with a subversive concept of sculpture, creating sculptures that went farther than simply objects. This idea led them to make themselves parts of their art, which they joined as "living sculptures". Since their first creation, The Singing Sculpture (1969), and their already legendary Underneath the Arches, Gilbert & George have spent more than forty years creating art as a single artistic collective, and they have created more than two thousand works of art.

Their achievement and ambitions as artists, encompassed by their argument of "Art for All", have consisted of describing the intense and universal experience of living in the modern world. Presenting images taken from reality and even from themselves as figures, they manage to create an art that speaks of daily life and intellectual artistic aspects. Until 1974 they worked exclusively in black and white; that year they introduced graffiti and the colour red; and in the 1980s they added yellow, green and blue. They only started to spatter colour on all their images in 1982. Since 2003 they have increased their use of computers to digitally alter and improve their art, enormous polyptychs that seem to surround viewers and produce great aesthetic impact.

Jack Freak Pictures
The common element running throughout the Jack Freak Pictures is the flag of the United Kingdom, the Union Jack, as this flag's historical and symbolic presence is the exhibition's connecting theme. Moving beyond icons and the absurd, Gilbert & George allow their motif to keep its own ambiguous rhetoric so they can deal with geometric and abstract drawing in red, blue and white to the maximum possible extent.

In this group of pictures, with its evocation of atmospheres and emotions, pictorial elements are relatively few and include medals, amulets, trees, foliage, city maps of East London, bricks, the Union Jack, the street and the artists themselves. They attribute an almost magical meaning to nature and use it like an emblem. Here the human body and face (especially eyes and fingers) are mutations of themselves, taking the form of inhuman presences such as prophets, totems and monsters (Hecatomb, Homey, Brits, etc.). The artists appear dressed in multi-coloured, patterned clothes such as the kind worn by actors and comedians in variety reviews (Metalepsy, Street Party, Jesus Suits, etc.), as "flag men" literally composed with the Union Jack (Metaljack, Bleeding Medals, Frigidarium, etc.) and as dancers, looking like robots or marionettes, lost in a kind of trance and absorbed by the pictorial support, to end up transformed into living sculptures (Harvest Dance, Cancan, Stuff Religion, etc.).

From a formal perspective, their huge pictures take on the same aspect as large stained-glass windows, or enormous kaleidoscopes dominated by geometric motifs and pure, flat and intense colours. These fragmented structures make many points of view possible without letting their art turn into mere visual anecdotes, and the frontality of the compositions beckon to viewers in a simple way that reinforces their ceremonial and ornamental qualities at the same time. All this supports a purpose they explain as wanting to enter into the person, wanting to be successful and wanting to be right; they try to place themselves within the soul of the viewer so that he/she remembers the image forever.
All the exhibited pictures were created in 2008 using mixed media.

In the margins of the exhibition

As a complement to the exhibition, visitors can see the film The Secret Files of Gilbert & George. This interview, filmed in 2000 by the curator Hans Ulrich Obrist for an exhibition at the Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, concentrates on the hysteria of the archive and the collection. Through this document, which does not fit into any distinct category (documentary, oeuvre, fiction) we discover Gilbert & George’s intimate life, the interior of their London house, a veritable museum of obsessions.

One of the highlights of this exhibition will be the new edition of BOZAR by NIGHT on 10 November 2010. During this event, Gilbert and George’s Jack Freak Pictures exhibition and Wim Delvoye’s Knockin’ on heaven’s door exhibition, will remain open to the public between 8 and 12 pm. Inside these, audiovisual and performing arts students will give short performances inspired by the works on show. Alongside these, the public will be able to enjoy a screening of Julian Cole’s movie With Gilbert & George (2008), an intimate and moving portrait that reveals the individuals behind the living sculptures. This film will be screened in collaboration with Jeunesse et Arts Plastiques (JAP). From 10 pm until the wee hours of the morning, the Horta Hall will come alive with sets by famous DJ’s such as Cal & Sikey, Mustang (Cosy Mozzy & Andy Faisca), Mauro ‘tanzdebil’ Pawlowski & Sven Mes AKA Chubbee Bee as well as Sylvestre Defontaine & Yves Brunson (Pure FM). These duos and many others, Gilbert & George oblige, will make this night in BOZAR a night to remember!

Press contact:
Leen Daems +32 (0)2 5078389 leen.daems@bozar.be

Image: Union Dance 226 x 190 cm © Gilbert & George

Press conference Thursday 28 October at 11am
In the presence of Gilbert and George.

Centre for Fine Arts
Entrance Rue Ravensteinstraat 23, 1000 Brussels
Opening hours: Tuesdays to Sundays, 10 am - 6 pm
Thursdays, 10 am - 9 pm
Closed on Mondays
Price € 10,00 – € 8,00 - € 5,00

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