The Alcoholic

Contemporary Art

1978

Gilbert & George
Gilbert Proesch; British, born 1943; George Passmore; British, born 1942

Gilbert Proesch and George Passmore met in 1967 as students at St. Martin’s School of Art in London. By 1969 they dropped their surnames in order to rid themselves of their separate artistic identities and became a collaborative unit. Although they work in a variety of media, including performance, photography, film, and video, Gilbert & George refer to all of their work as sculpture. Early on, they performed as “living sculptures,” making themselves their own subject matter. In 1971 Gilbert & George made their first multipanel photographs, which have remained their dominant form of expression. In the 1970s, they gradually shifted the emphasis of their art away from their own experiences to larger social issues, scrutinizing the inner-city realities that confronted them on the streets of London.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Contemporary Art

Artist: Gilbert & George
Title: The Alcoholic
Place: United Kingdom (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1978
Medium: Sixteen gelatin silver prints
Dimensions: 60.3 × 50.2 cm (23 3/4 × 19 3/4 in.), each; 242 × 202 cm (95 1/4 × 79 3/8 in.), installed
Credit Line: Twentieth-Century Purchase Fund
Reference Number: 1978.57a-p

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