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Gilbert & George are a celebrated artist duo whose radical collaboration has been one of the defining forces in contemporary art since the late 1960s. Their signature imagery is known for its vibrant, confrontational and unflinching nature, with the duo once declaring, ‘Our subject matter is the world.’

Gilbert Proesch, born in Italy in 1943, and George Passmore, born in England in 1942, met while studying sculpture at St Martin’s School of Art in London in 1967. This began their life-long artistic partnership, with the pair noting, ‘It’s not a collaboration... We are two people, but one artist.’

While students, Gilbert & George were taking photographs of each other holding their small-scale sculptures and felt that the most interesting element was the pair’s presence within the images, rather than the objects themselves. From this moment on, Gilbert & George saw themselves as living sculptures: ‘Art and life became one, and we were the messengers of a new vision. At that moment that we decided we are art and life, every conversation with people became art, and still is.’

One of the pieces that established this practice was The Singing Sculpture (1969), in which Gilbert & George stood on a table in formal suits and metallic face paints, singing Underneath the Arches. Although Gilbert & George worked across a variety of mediums, they considered everything they did to be sculpture, from Charcoal on Paper Sculptures to Magazine Sculptures.

From the early 1970s, the duo shifted towards producing large-scale photographic works and multi-panel compositions. The artists would often appear within these artworks — in To Her Majesty (1973), evenings of drunkenness by the artists are commemorated through black and white photographs, with the piece sold by Christie’s in 2008 for £1.9 million.

Gilbert & George’s artworks function as social commentaries, utilising both humour and intensity. They often combine bold colour, text and images drawn from urban life, religion, sexuality, politics and morality — works like The Dirty Words Pictures (1977) reflect this signature style by juxtaposing graffiti swear words with portraits of Londoners, as a way to explore the city’s tension.

For more than five decades, the pair have lived and worked in London’s East End, with much of their material and subject matter sourced within walking distance of their home. The influence of their local area can be seen in Twenty-Eight Streets (2003), which alphabetically lists street names found under the E1 postcode.

In 1986, Gilbert & George were awarded the prestigious Turner Prize and they went on to represent Great Britain at the Venice Biennale in 2005. Throughout their career, the duo have continued to blur the boundaries between art and life, artwork and artist, and explore themes through their work that affect everyday people. This artistic philosophy is summarised in their long-standing motto: Art for All.