GILBERT AND GEORGE (b.1943 and 1942) A DRINK

A PRIVATE AMERICAN COLLECTION OF CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY

Provenance
Barbara Gladstone Gallery, NEW YORK

Exhibited
CAPC Musée d'Art Contemporain de Bordeaux, May 9-September 7, 1986 Kunsthalle Basel, September 28-November 9, 1986 BRUSSELS, Palais des Beaux Arts, November 21, 1986-January 11, 1987 MADRID, Palacio de Valazquez, Parque del retiro, February 4-March 29, 1987 MUNICH, Städtische Galerie Lembachhaus, April 15-June 14, 1987 and LONDON, Hayward Gallery, July 9-September 26, 1987, GILBERT AND GEORGE: THE COMPLETE PICTURES 1971-1985, p. 60 (illustrated)

Literature
Gilbert and George and C. Ratcliff, GILBERT AND GEORGE: THE COMPLETE PICTURES, NEW YORK,1986, p. 60 (illustrated)

Gilbert and George's A DRINKING SCULPTURE is part of a larger series dedicated to chronicling the artists drunken exploits in London's East End between 1973 and 1974. This period of debauchery and the subsequent photographs were motivated by the newfound success that Gilbert and George had found following the presentation of the work A SINGING SCULPTURE in both the United States and America. This new popularitygave rise to an abundance of spare cash, and with this Gilbert and George decided to experiment with and revel in this newly flush state.

Typical to all works from the series, A DRINKING SCULPTURE captures and commemorates an evening out or perhaps more accurately a drunken bout in London. Invoking the motion of a cycle the artists draw attention to the result of their seemingly self-destructive behavior. This doubly demonic behavior acts as a bridge for the artists, "In a sense, A DRINKING SCULPTURE represented not Hell but Limbo. Temptation, seduction and bloodletting did not directly and logically affect the artists themselves, who maintained a strict and conscious postureofdetachment from the images of their own downfall" (W. Jahn, THE ART OF GILBERT & GEORGE,NEW YORK,1989, p. 128).

One of the final works from this series, this work seems to portend a darker future course for the artists. Indeed what followed was the series Dark Shadows, and with A DRINKING SCULPTURE we can already intuit the somber mood and dark focus. On the precipice, the artists both delve into and remain impartial enough to represent the swirling and rapacious East End drinking scene. Using their traditional grid arrangement to expose this marginal scene and behavior, the work remains provocative in its ordering of the unordered and seemly asserts the greater themes of Gilbert and George's path to redemption and understanding.