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Lot Essay
Red Morning is from one of Gilbert & George's most important series. Referring to themselves as 'living sculptures', Gilbert & George are the primary subjects in the work often posing with stoic expressions in conservative business suits. The intention of their unglamorous stance and mundane attire is to reinforce the reality of everyday life. It is this authenticity that Gilbert & George implement throughout their artwork.
In this series, Gilbert & George's portraits are strategically placed around four different images of a building's façade. Placed intermittently among the frozen portraits are snapshots of branches and images of nature. Existing in isolation, the images in this series explore the delicate balance between the man-made city and nature. By placing the construction of civilization in direct opposition to the forces of nature Gilbert & George create a disquieting sense of civilization treading a thin line between survival and destruction. The cynicism seen in this series is present in much of Gilbert & George's work as they muse on the many faults of mankind.
What makes this quirky social commentary so powerful is the way in which the artists strategically combine sixteen different panels to read as one total body of work. All the panels possess similar formal elements--Gilbert & George's upright stance echoes the building's vertical columns and the tree's linear branches and yet they are completely unrelated, each individual image stands on its own. The grid-like format of the work reflects the architecture captured in photographs.
The blood red color in Red Morning also plays a central role in the reception of the work. The psychedelic red-tinted panels were first implemented in their work in 1975 and are a reminder of process, a reflection of the darkroom. The vivid and harrowing red reverberates through the composition with such intensity that it remains embedded in memory. Gilbert & George's deliberate use of red reinforces its human association with love, hate, sex and violence creating an overall emotionally charged work of art.
In this series, Gilbert & George's portraits are strategically placed around four different images of a building's façade. Placed intermittently among the frozen portraits are snapshots of branches and images of nature. Existing in isolation, the images in this series explore the delicate balance between the man-made city and nature. By placing the construction of civilization in direct opposition to the forces of nature Gilbert & George create a disquieting sense of civilization treading a thin line between survival and destruction. The cynicism seen in this series is present in much of Gilbert & George's work as they muse on the many faults of mankind.
What makes this quirky social commentary so powerful is the way in which the artists strategically combine sixteen different panels to read as one total body of work. All the panels possess similar formal elements--Gilbert & George's upright stance echoes the building's vertical columns and the tree's linear branches and yet they are completely unrelated, each individual image stands on its own. The grid-like format of the work reflects the architecture captured in photographs.
The blood red color in Red Morning also plays a central role in the reception of the work. The psychedelic red-tinted panels were first implemented in their work in 1975 and are a reminder of process, a reflection of the darkroom. The vivid and harrowing red reverberates through the composition with such intensity that it remains embedded in memory. Gilbert & George's deliberate use of red reinforces its human association with love, hate, sex and violence creating an overall emotionally charged work of art.