'Art for all': Gilbert and George

Q. Art for all

A. It is Gilbert's and George's stated wish that their art be for everyone. They see their work as an exercise in accessibility, as a reaction against the elitism inherent in much modern art.

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Q. And is it

A. That's up to the individual viewer, though on a certain level their work certainly contains everyday items - not least their use of human excreta of all kinds, including faeces, urine, semen and spit - and is generally figurative in nature. There is also the - possibly more - important aspect of their work, that of using themselves as living sculptures.

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Q. How so

A. While still at art college they developed their famous routines that they called 'Singing Sculptures', and their first show as such was at Frank's Sandwich Bar in London in 1968. One of their best-known works in this guise was The Singing Sculpture (1970) in which the duo, with painted faces, stood on a table and made movements to the old Flanagan and Allen music-hall song 'Underneath the Arches', sometimes in marathon 8-hour stretches.

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After performing this in different locations over a number of years they decided that they needed no other subject matter in their work but themselves. As Gilbert said in 1995: 'It caught people's imaginations totally - and we were the art. We realised that we could speak, that we were able to create messages. We became the speaking art object. I think nobody ever did that before.'

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Q. The famous suits are presumably part of this living sculpture routine

A. Certainly. Their trademark matching suits, their walking everywhere and their habit of eating out every night - it used to be said that they never ate in the same place twice, but you're very likely to find them in a certain Turkish eatery in Stoke Newington, north London, on a regular basis - are all elements of the 'total art lifestyle' that they espouse. It makes them accessible and brings their art to the people.

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Q. So, a quick back track. Who are Gilbert and George

A. Gilbert Proesch and George Passmore come from very different backgrounds. Gilbert was born in 1943 in the San Martino in the Italian Dolomites. He trained as a woodcarver in his father's workshop, turning out Bambis and nativity scenes. Before coming to London he studied at Wolkenstein School of Art, Hallein School of Art, and Munich Academy of Art. When he arrived at Central St Martin's art school in London in 1967 he could not speak English and he used sign language.

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George was born in Plymouth, Devon, in 1942 and brought up in Tiverton. His father had left home before he was born, and although they made contact again in the 1960s they soon lost touch again. His mother had three divorces and lots of boyfriends. At 15 he left school to work in a shop. He studied at Dartington College of Art and then, failing to get a place at teacher-training college, he hitched to London where he got a job in Selfridges during the day and an evening job as a barman. He then got a place at the technical college in Oxford. In 1965 began the Advanced Sculpture course at Central St Martin's art school in London, where he met Gilbert.

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Q. What brought them together

A. They claim that they began to work as a duo because George was the only student who could understand Gilbert's pidgin English. The dual presence in their work emphasises their equal artistic partnership and the seamless pairing of their individual creativities.

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Q. And brief r�sum� of their career

A. The basic aim early on seemed to be to annoy. One of their most celebrated teachers was Anthony Caro who was certainly annoyed and expressed the wish to George that he would not succeed, although he feared that he would.

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Gilbert and George set up an office in then unfashionable Fournier Street, Spitalfields, east London, and offered themselves as living sculptures. They felt slighted when not included in a London exhibition in 1968 of new Minimal and Conceptual Art, called When Attitude Became Form, so responded by painting their heads and standing motionless in the centre of the gallery on the opening night. As a result the German dealer Konrad Fischer offered them a show at the D�sseldorf Kunsthalle. From this point their international career took off.

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Much of their art has attempted to address taboos, not least about their about sexuality - though they deny that they are 'gay' artists, saying: 'We don't have a strong gay feeling - the sexual feelings we get are the ones everyone gets.' They were, however, furious at the reaction a 1999 exhibition of their work whipped up in Belfast, where their sexuality was put on trial and their work described by Ian Paisley with his art critic hat on as 'Sodom and Gomorrah'.

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In 1997 the Mus�e d'Art Moderne in Paris did a 30-year retrospective, confirming their status as artists of international importance.

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For many years they were represented by the gallery owner and agent Anthony d'Offay, but they parted from him somewhat acrimoniously, and are now represented by Jay Joplin, who also represents other happening British artists, such as Damien Hirst.

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Q. Are they still shocking

A. The titles of their work leave little to the imagination, and they frequently appear naked in less than discreet poses in their collages. But shocking In Belfast if not in east London, maybe, so they could be seen as having a certain metropolitan elitism. They have also become established, if not quite fully paid-up members of the Establishment, whether they wish to be or not - 'Unlike so many of the young British artists, we haven't been invited to tea at Downing Street,' they say.

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More shocking to some was their support of William Hague - 'We do like William,' they were heard to state - echoing their 1980s approval of Margaret Thatcher. The Labour establishment wasn't pleased, having smugly considered the avant-garde art world unequivocally theirs.

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Q. And what do Gilbert and George say about themselves

A. Quite a lot, but here are a couple of telling quotes:

'You can always trust us to do our worst - we're very consistent.' (Though they deny any irony in their work.)

'Nothing matters. Our motto is that nothing matters.'

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See also the answerbank articles on Anthony d'Offay and Brit Art

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For more on Arts & Literature click here

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By Simon Smith