Their art evolved through several phases: from the initial "living sculptures" (like the "Singing Sculpture" pictured at right in which they themselves, singing 1930s dance hall tunes while standing on chairs in a gallery, were the art); to mostly black and white photo collages of themselves in gray suits posing in the pubs and streets of London, drinking gin and claret and urinating in bushes; to large-scale primary-color-drenched canvases that include images of nude men, piss, shit, semen, insects, religious icons, as well as themselves (both nude and in their signature suits).  The idea was to make art more accessible, more playful, to remove the distance between art and artist and to celebrate the male body. You can see a couple short films of their living sculptures here.



 











Our personal favorite thing in the retrospective was a series of four huge canvases from 1984, approximately 10 feet by 70 feet in total, entitled "SHITTY NAKED HUMAN WORLD" ("Naked appears below, click for full NSFW glory) which appear like stained glass windows devoted to gay sex, scatology and Jesus. Two examples from a similar set of canvases called "DEATH HOPE LIFE FEAR" appear at left (click to enlarge)

































Check out the show at the DeYoung through May 18, or wait and see if it comes nearer to you.


RELATED:
Japanese Book Browsers Soon to Be Staring Down Huge Black and White Penises (link NSFW)

Gilbert & George (deYoung Museum)



April 1, 2008 11:26 AM | save to del.icio.us | digg it | facebook it | Comments (0)