As part of a series of posts detailing the practitioners who have created the most expensive photographs sold at auction, this edition looks at Gilbert and George – a duo of artists who collaborate mostly on mixed-media pieces.

Profile

Gilbert Prousch, born 17 September 1943, Italy.
George Passmore, born 8 January 1942, Great Britain.
Best known for brightly-coloured photo-based artworks

Work

The Pictures 1971-present
Jack Freak Pictures
George the Cunt and Gilbert the Shit 1969
Singing Sculpture 1969

Influences

Inspired by artists such as Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol, William Blake, and Oscar Wild, while studying at Saint Martin’s School of Art in London, and influenced by movements such as Pop Art, Conceptual Art and Performance Art.

At Auction

To Her Majesty 1973. Gelatin Silver print. Sold at Christie’s London in June 2008: $3,765,276

Red Morning (Hate) 1977. Hand coloured Gelatin Silver print. Sold at Christie’s New York in November 2013:$1,805,000

What you need to know

Gilbert & George consider themselves one artist and are continually performing as ‘living sculptures’, even when walking down the street. The duo will not leave their home without their ‘uniform’ of old-fashioned suits. As anti-establishment artists, their work uses extreme bold colours clashing against black and white photographs, with swear words and insults combined into the pieces. Large-scale and provoking, Gilbert and George’s art aims to tackle religion and political correctness, often resulting in scandalised viewers.

Other

Gilbert and George married in 2008 and live together in East London’s Spitalfields, claiming “nothing happens in the world that doesn’t happen in the East End.”

Their work has influenced many artists such as comic book writer Grant Morrison, Kraftwerk, Florian Schneider and Ralf Hutter, and their work was known to be collected by David Bowie.

Other instalments of the series include Andreas Gursky, Cindy Sherman, and Richard Prince.