Gilbert & George ARTIST ROOMS

The Atkinson presents a major exhibition of work by Gilbert & George, organised in collaboration with ARTIST ROOMS, which tours single-artist exhibitions drawn from a national collection jointly owned by Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland. This is the first time in over 30 years that an exhibition of the artists’ work has been shown in the North West of England.  

Two people, one artist: for nearly 60 years Gilbert (b. 1943) & George (b. 1942) have made large-scale, often vividly coloured works combining photography, text and found objects, building one of the most recognisable partnerships in modern art. Winners of the Turner Prize in 1986, they remain among Britain’s most influential contemporary artists, with work held in major collections worldwide. 

Recurring themes include religion, sexuality, race and identity, and the tensions and desires generated by life in the modern metropolis. Gilbert & George are recognised above all for their radical expansion of the concept of sculpture, shifting it from an object-based practice into one encompassing their lived experience and environs, with the artists themselves as its enduring subject. 

This exhibition spans decades of practice, from the rarely seen charcoal-on-paper sculpture The Nature of Our Looking 1970, early video works including Gordon’s Makes Us Drunk 1972 and In the Bush 1972, to larger multi-part, brightly coloured works such as EXISTERS 1984 and FAITH DROP 1991. 

Central to their practice is the idea of the ‘living sculpture’: Gilbert & George incorporate themselves and their lives directly into their art, using this position to provoke, and to question social convention and taboo. The 1969 ‘magazine sculpture’ on display, in which the artists smile out at the viewer with cut-out letters pinned to their chests, exemplifies this early emphasis on self-image, on their status as outsiders, and on their guiding principle of ‘art for all’.