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Gilbert & George Quotes
born 1940 United Kingdom
Gilbert & George, sometimes referred to as Gilbert Proesch (born 1943) and George Passmore (born 1942), are two artists who work together as a collaborative duo. They are known for their highly formal appearance and manner and also for their brightly coloured graphic-style photo-based artworks.
United Kingdom Artists Photographers Also known as: Gilbert and George
Random Gilbert & George quote
11 quotes
To create, you must empty yourself of every artistic thought.
Really creative thinking does not occur with regard to problems.
We want our Art to bring out the Bigot from inside the Liberal and conversely to bring out the Liberal from inside the Bigot.
We think of our art as just pictures, not as photographs. We are using photography, not being photographers.
A clergyman once said to us, "Jealousy is a bad thing. But I must confess that I am sometimes jealous of the artist because the artist is closer to creation."
Gilbert and George in the mirror (2005)
But we don't want to think. It's exhausting enough without that. We didn't think when we did the Ginkgo Pictures, at all. Afterwards we found out all this stuff about them.
Gilbert and George in the mirror (2005)
If you are submerged in normal life, then your view will be normal. So we have to keep separate from normal life in order to be able to say something that is not known. People come to art for something that they don’t understand, that’s not in their life already.
We like to think that we’re forming our tomorrows, that we’re making pictures that don’t exist in reality, that maybe tomorrow will be a little bit more like our pictures than it would otherwise.
George: One man naked is a male study; more than one, well... that's quite serious - two men naked are more naked than one.
George: We say that how we are that day made us do that picture and we have to respect that. If you have another thought, that's another picture; it would be another one.
People used to refer to our art as "gay art"—though they never said the "gay art of Leonardo or Michelangelo." Much of our content used to be taboo and isn't considered that anymore, not just in the obvious ways of sexuality or bodies. The art world has moved to the point that Gilbert & George isn't on the radical edge anymore.
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