THE GREAT EXHIBITION
Two individuals – one artist. For more than fifty years Gilbert & George have been creating art, placing themselves as both subject and object. In THE GREAT EXHIBITION, the artists have selected pictures mirriorring their art, just as captivating as it is prolific. Their art, has the power to unsettle the viewer. The exhibition is packed from floor to ceiling with pictures that are grotesque and terse, surrealistic and symbolic, but consistently within the strict grid that is emblematic of the duo. Sex, money, race and religión are among the subjects of their art, which succeeds in combining happiness and sadness, beauty and meaning. The gallery compromisos Works from the period 1971 to 2016.
Gilbert ( born in 1943 in the Italian Dolomites), and George (born in 1942 in Plymouth, UK), have an express purpose with their provocative art. Their everyday life is so creative, they have made room for total creative madness and vision of truth. So far, qualities such as honesty, clarity, sincerity, decency, soudness, incorruptibility and other components of intergrity have been centralto the debatein good design since Plato’sEarly Socratic Dialogues. Unless it has integrity, no design project can be deemed to be good, however useful, beautiful or innovative it may be. ‘Good designs enableshonest and effective engagement with the world,’ wrote the American philosopher Robert Grudin in his book Design and Truth. ‘If good design tells the truth, poor designs tells alie, a lie usually related, in one way or another, to the getting or abusing power’.
And as we can see, the aim of this two artists is to explain the reality of today’s world, to their audience. “For over half a century, they have been among the most visible artists on the planet. This is not surprising, since the recurring themes in their art could not be more fundamental to us humans: politics, religion, sexuality and beauty. Ultimately, what their art is about is human lifeitself” – Daniel Birnbaum and Hans Ulrich Obrist.
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