To Be With Art Is All We Ask...
George Passmore
British, born 1942
Gilbert & George
British
Gilbert Proesch
British, born Italy 1943
1970
A three-part wall drawing made from partially charred folding sheets of paper worked with charcoal and brown wash, in which Gilbert & George pair a dense, manifesto-like text in the center with haunting, soot-streaked figural impressions at the sides to insist that being with art is essential.
At first sight it reads like a monumental proclamation: a central block of tightly set, headline-bearing text is flanked by sepia-toned, blurred charcoal images and scorched, stain-rimmed paper whose smudges and ash give the work a raw, incantatory presence.
The work collapses life and art by using damaged, everyday materials and printed language as a public manifesto, prefiguring later installation and text-based practices that treat language and urban detritus as central sculptural media.
Medium
Triptych: Charcoal and wash on partially charred folding sheets of paper in cardboard box
Dimensions
Triptych (.a-c) installed: 110 3/8 x 320 3/4" (280.3 x 814.6 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Purchase
Accession
379.1971.a-f
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
