Gilbert & George
The Fundamental

  • United Kingdom
  • en
  • [cc]
  • 100'
The Fundamental Gilbert & George
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Synopsis

Gilbert & George cultivate paradoxes. Set back from the upscale milieu of contemporary art that reveres them, this pair of loners advocates "art for all". Serial, obsessive, sensitive, cerebral, with a British elegance that borders on parody, their provocative commandeering of the codes compels reflection. The camera follows them in their home-studio, in their neighbourhood, giving free rein to the lucid, often crude words of these working-class gentlemen about themselves and about the changes in the world that feed their creative process.

What you will find in this film

Preparatory studies • An interest in the organic • Samples and observation • Thousands of contact sheets • A rigorous nomenclature • Giant formats • Masks and stencils • Successive impositions • Months for one image • The photographic kitchen • Good use of the grid • From micro to macro • From black and white to colour • Total mastery of the creative process • A serial art • Exhibition models • A duo of artists • A four-handed creation • Thirty-five years of creation • "Living sculptures" • Total complicity • The art of provoking reflection • Paying attention to the world • Art for All • Artists in immersion • Permanence and durability • Never denying oneself • Breaking taboos • Contemporary, universal themes • A home-studio • London's East End • Bespoke tailor • Routines and obsessions • Relentless collectors • Rejection of religions • An interest in transcendence • On the need to be tolerant • To make the artist a work of art • A planetary influence •

Keywords

Masters of Photography Portrait & Aesthetics Experimental & Alternative Photography Showcasing Photography Creative & Exhibition Photography The Artist at Work
In many ways our life, we believe, is a nightmare. What we are doing is based on unhappiness. I know many people don’t like that, but it is true.

Documentaries about photography, and about the people who make it. 
You can try it free for 7 days.

What you’ll find

Portraits of photographers, names everyone knows and others you’ll discover here. Films about street photography, war, fashion or portraiture, about printing and historical processes. About the trades of photography too. And then suggestions for going further, with Focuses, articles, interviews, bibliographies.

A small independent team

Documentaries about photography were rarely shown on television, and hardly at all on streaming platforms. We created The Darkroom Rumour to give them a place of their own. We are a small team, and we choose every film ourselves, with no school to defend.

Inspire your photography

In these films, you see photographers at work, in the field as well as in the darkroom. If you take pictures, you’ll often come away with an idea to try. If you simply like looking at images, you may start to see them differently.

How it works 

You can watch the films online, anywhere in the world, on a computer, tablet or phone, and on TV by mirroring your phone’s or computer’s screen. Every film is available in French and English, with no ads. New releases come out on Saturday or Sunday. The trial lasts 7 days, and if you stop before day 8, you pay nothing.

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The authors/artists

Gilbert & George
Gilbert & George
Artists
Gerald Fox
Gerald Fox
Filmmaker

Further exploration

Selected bibliography

• Hans Ulrich Obrist and Daniel Birnbaum, Gilbert & George - The Great Exhibition (1971-2016), LUMA Arles with Heni Publishing, 2018 (in French and English). Publisher · Libraries

• Wolf Jahn, Gilbert & George - The Meaning of the Earth, Hurtwood Press, 2022. Publisher · Libraries

• Jan Debbaut, Michael Bracewell, Marco Livingstone and Ben Borthwick, Gilbert & George, Tate, 2007. Libraries

• Gilbert & George, The World of Gilbert and George: The Storyboard, Enitharmon Press, 2001. Publisher

• François Jonquet, Gilbert & George - conversation intime, Grasset, 2016 (in French). Libraries

• Gilbert & George and Rudi Fuchs, L'œuvre en images (1971-2005), Gallimard, 2007 (in French).

Online

• Gilbert and George quit Royal Academy over dashed hopes for major exhibition, Vanessa Thorpe, The Guardian, 2020.

• At home with Gilbert & George: 'It has to be immaculate in order for us to make all these unpleasant pictures', The Guardian, 2015.

• Gilbert & George: The Early Years, The Museum of Modern Art, video, YouTube, 2015.

• Gilbert & George, exhibition, Moderna Museet, 2019.