Spitalfields ‘is past, present and future rolled into one’, declares George of the two-person, one-artist phenomenon that is Gilbert & George.
They met in 1967 at what was then Saint Martin’s School of Art, bought a derelict house on Fournier Street and have since become an instantly recognisable and inextricable part of the area. Expounding on its history, Gilbert points out a mosque that has previously been a church and a synagogue, and adds that their studio, behind their house, used to be a factory for tailoring – churning out police uniforms.
The studio is now split into three long spaces. One is devoted to the technical aspects of their image-based picture-creating process, ‘which we like to keep a mystery’, says George. The other two are lined with cupboards containing meticulously kept archives that chart every artwork, every exhibition and every party they have attended or hosted, while working tables stretch down the centres.
Other surfaces host ordered displays – from vintage cake stands to a collection of books on Major-General Sir Hector MacDonald, who, Gilbert explains, rose through the ranks on merit alone until, in 1903, he shot himself as a result of a homosexual scandal.
‘We think his reputation should be rehabilitated,’ says George. An area of wall is devoted to more contemporary pin-ups, including Marcus Rashford, Theresa May – ‘she just kept going’ – Rishi Sunak, the late Queen and President Zelensky.
Gilbert & George have become renowned for addressing traditionally taboo subjects – death, religion, politics, sexuality – using a range of media, including, on occasion, bodily fluids. ‘You have abstract art, you have figurative art, but our art speaks to humanity,’ says George. ‘And it isn’t designed to shock, but to de-shock.’
Their motto, Art for All, is reflected in their determination that their work should be easy to understand, in their subsidising of catalogues and, most recently, in the fact that entry to the Gilbert & George Centre, which opened this year in Spitalfields, is free. The transformation of a former brewery was carried out by SIRS, the local architects who also worked on their studio. ‘Whether you’re arriving from Wolverhampton or Venezuela, there will always be pictures to see by us,’ says George. It is yet another layer to the area’s rich culture.
The Gilbert & George Centre, Heneage Street, E1, is open Thursday to Sunday: gilbertandgeorgecentre.org
