Gilbert & George - Contemporary Art Evening Sale New York Thursday, March 4, 2010 | Phillips

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  • Provenance


    Texas Gallery, Houston; Galleria In Arco, Turin

  • Exhibited


    Bordeaux, CAPC Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux, May 9 - September 7, 1986; Basel, Kunsthalle Basel, September 28 - November 9, 1986; Brussels, Palais des Beaux Arts, November 21, 1986 - January 11, 1987; Madrid, Palacio de Velazquez, Parque del Retiro, February 4 - March 29, 1987; Munich, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, April 15 - June 14, 1987; and London, Hayward Gallery, July 9 - September 26, 1987; Gilbert & George: The Complete Pictures 1971-1985

  • Literature


    Gilbert & George, Gilbert & George: The Complete Pictures 1971-1985, Stuttgart, 1986, p. 192 (illustrated); Gilbert & George, Gilbert & George: The Complete Pictures 1971-2005 in Two Volumes, New York, 2007, p. 466 (illustrated)
     

  • Catalogue Essay


    Gilbert and George met in 1967 at St. Martin’s School of Art in London and since then have been an inseparable pair both in art and in life. Their work of the early 1980s is defined by combining their signature grid pattern with their new use of a vivid color palette. The present work, Friend Fear, painted in 1983, not only exemplifies this form and aesthetic but also the motifs that characterized this period, including the use of tribal images. Gilbert and George’s art has always been an interpretation of modern society but in particular, the work from this period presents a more specific focus on life and death and the hope and fear associated with this. This unique method of examining the broad spectrum of human emotions and existence is what so powerfully defines Gilbert and George.
    “Gilbert: ‘I don’t think we have changed our ideas. You can see them in our earliest works. The form changed, the way we present our ideas.’
    George: ‘We’ve elaborated on them. But our intention has remained the same.’
    Gilbert: ‘We believe in tradition.’ […] We think the artist is a priest, a philosopher, of life,”
    (C. Ratcliff, “Gilbert and George: The Fabric of Their World,” Gilbert & George: The Complete Pictures 1971-1985, 1986).

33

Friend Fear

1983
C-prints in the artists’ metal frames in 12 parts.
71 1/4 x 79 1/2 in. (181 x 201.9 cm) overall.
Signed, titled and dated “Gilbert + George Friend Fear 1983” lower right.

Estimate
$150,000 - 250,000 

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

4 Mar 2010
New York