Hectically of the moment

A new exhibition is confirmation that Gilbert & George's entire life and career together can now be seen as a single piece of performance art, 60 years long

- By Mark Hudson

Let’s hear it for that great Sixties singing duo whose performances defined an era.

No, not Simon & Garfunkel. Though they are similarly aged and had an equally momentous impact on their field. Gilbert & George met in 1967, during the Summer of Love, as students at St Martin’s School of Art (though they eschewed psychedelic paisleys in favour of immaculately tailored tweed suits). Styling themselves as “singing sculptures”, they became living works of art, their faces painted the colour of bronze, for performances of Flanagan & Allen’s soppy prewar hit “Underneath the Arches” that sometimes lasted an entire day.

While these events are now celebrated as some of the first manifestations of British conceptual art, paving the way for all the raucous, genre-busting art that’s come since, Gilbert & George themselves have long since been consigned to the role of “national treasures”. Now in their eighties and still sporting their trademark fine tailoring, the pair, who married in 2008, are seen as somewhat crusty but lovable eccentrics who make a virtue of predictability. They still live in the same street in London’s East End, where they moved in 1969, favour the same restaurants they’ve frequented for decades, and spout political views that appear designed to wind up the liberal-left-veering art establishment.