The Alcoholic.
|
Title |
The Alcoholic. |
|
Creator |
Gilbert and George (English sculptors, working together from 1967) |
|
Date |
1977 |
|
Cultural Context |
English
British
European |
|
Subject |
Composite photographs
Montages
Justice
Social justice
Social values
Economic & social conditions
Moral & ethical aspects
Ethics
Alcoholism
Men
Sleeping
Artists
Sculptors
Photographers
Faces
Eyeglasses
Baldness |
|
Description |
"Gilbert and George's presence in their photo-works can be seen as an extension of their early performance activities. They often stand apart from the other imagery in the pieces as though acknowledging the artifice involved. Moral conundrums are frequently raised. The Alcoholic seems essentially compassionate but in one notorious work, 'Paki' of 1978, they flanked a young Asian man. Their images were flooded in red whilst he remained in black and white. Whether they were guardians or oppressors seemed unclear." (Caption, p.193); "[…] Gilbert and George, whose symbiotic partnership began in 1967 at London's St Martin's School of Art, showed a dandyish irresolution towards social protest. Their famous Singing Sculpture (1969) was riven with contradictions. Wearing anachronistic suits, they posed as 'Living Sculptures' with a table as their 'pedestal'. Their gold-painted faces echoed Joseph Beuys's earlier performance persona, but they had nothing of his shamanic idealism. As they circled robotically to the music-hall nostalgia of a recording of Flanagan and Allen's Underneath the Arches, they appeared to annex the dreamy resignation of its tramps to the futility of the characters in Samuel Beckett's influential play Waiting for Godot. In the mid-1970s, they began the sequence of large, multi-paneled photo-installations which continue to the present. Appearing in their works as besuited witnesses of social deprivation and intolerance, they seemed like donors in secular altarpieces or Victorian philanthropists visiting hell." (Excerpt, pp.193-194) |
|
People Pictured |
Gilbert & George
Gilbert, 1943-
George, 1942- |
|
Material |
Photographs |
|
Technique |
Photography
Photographic processes
Photographic techniques |
|
Inscription |
Lower right panel: THE ALCOHOLIC |
|
Work Type |
Photographs
Composite photographs
Montages
Photomontages
Manipulated photographs |
|
Source |
Hopkins, David. After Modern Art: 1945-2000. Oxford History of Art. Oxford; New York: Oxford UP, 2000. (p.193, fig.100) |
|
Rights |
Reproduced in Hopkins courtesy of the artists. |
|
Digital Publisher |
University of Louisville Department of Fine Arts/Allen R. Hite Art Institute Visual Resources Center |
|
Format |
image/jpeg |
|
Digital File Name |
VRC 826-07.jpg |
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Rating |
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