White Cube, the British art gallery and one of the world‟s leading galleries specializing in contemporary art, is proud to present its inaugural exhibition of 'LONDON PICTURES' by Gilbert & George on March 2, 2012 as it opens its first gallery outside London in the heart of Hong Kong‟s Central district.
The inaugural show will be the world premier of this monumental body of 292 pictures and is the largest series of work to date created by the acclaimed British artists, who will be in Hong Kong for the opening. 22 pictures will be shown in Hong Kong which will be the first venue on a global tour.
“For five decades, to international acclaim, Gilbert & George have been making art that is visionary, shocking, relentless, moral and richly atmospheric. In these new „LONDON PICTURES‟ (2011) Gilbert & George present an epic survey of modern urban life in all its volatility, tragedy, absurdity and routine violence. Brutal and declamatory, these brooding and disquieting pictures have been created from the sorting and classification by subject of nearly 4000 newspaper headline posters, stolen by the artists over a number of years. In their lucidity, no less than their insight into the daily realities of metropolitan life, the „LONDON PICTURES‟ are Dickensian in scope and ultra-modern in sensibility.
Drawing directly on the quotidian life of a vast city, the „LONDON PICTURES‟ allow contemporary society to recount itself in its own language. Within the townscape of this moral audit, Gilbert & George appear to pass like ghosts and seers, alternately watchful and distracted, as though their spirits were haunting the very streets and buildings that these pictures describe. The „LONDON PICTURES‟ seem to comprise a great visual novel, revealing without judgment the ceaseless relay of urban drama, in all its gradations of hope and suffering.”
- Extract from an essay by Michael Bracewell, British Writer and Novelist 2012
Gilbert was born in the Dolomites, Italy in 1943; George was born in Devon in 1942 and both live and work in London. Together they have participated in many important group and solo exhibitions and where among the first Western artists to exhibit in China at the Museum of Shanghai and National Gallery in Beijing in 1993.
A catalogue documenting all 292 of the “London Pictures‟ with an essay by Michael Bracewell will accompany the exhibition.
About the Artist
"Art for all‟ is the belief that underpins Gilbert & George‟s art. Their trademark format is the large grid, a square or rectangular picture broken into sections that becomes a unified field of signs and images.
Gilbert & George began working together in 1967 when they met at St Martins School of Art, and from the beginning, in their films and „living sculpture‟ they appeared as figures in their own work. The artists believe that everything is potential subject matter for their work, and they have always addressed social issues, taboos and artistic conventions. Implicit in their work is the idea that an artist‟s sacrifice and personal investment is a necessary condition of art. They have depicted themselves as naked figures in their own work, recasting the male nude as something vulnerable and fragile rather than as a potent figure of strength. The backdrop and inspiration for much of their work is the East End of London where Gilbert & George have lived and worked for over 40 years. From street signs to Ginkgo trees, from chewing gum stains on the pavements to vistas of urban grandeur and decay, their work is both an ongoing portrait of a city and a reflection on the human condition. Working in series, Gilbert & George have confronted many of the fundamental issues of existence: sex, religion, corruption, violence, hope, fear, racial tension, patriotism, addiction and death.
"Our subject matter is the world. It is pain. Pain. Just to hear the world turning is pain, isn‟t it? Totally, every day, every second. Our inspiration is all those people alive today on the planet, the desert, the jungle, the cities. We are interested in the human person, the complexity of life.‟ - Gilbert & George
Gilbert was born in the Dolomites, Italy in 1943; George was born in Devon in 1942 and both live and work in London. Together they have participated in many important group and solo exhibitions including 51st International Venice Biennale (2005), Turner Prize (1984) and Carnegie International (1985). They have had extensive solo exhibitions, including, Whitechapel Art Gallery (1971-1972), National Gallery, Beijing (1993), Shanghai Art Museum (1993), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1995-1996), Musée d‟Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (1998), Serpentine Gallery, London (2002), Kunsthaus Bregenz (2002) and Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover (2004-2005), Tate Modern, London and Haus der Kunst, Munich (both 2007), Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York and Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia (all 2008), „Jack Freak Pictures‟, CAC Malaga; Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb and Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels (all 2010) and the Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Kunstmuseum Linz, Linz (both 2011) and Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art, Gdansk (2011-2012).
