Poging GOUD - Vrij
Art review Duo's lust for urban life still in the rudest of health
The Guardian
|October 07, 2025
The first picture in Gilbert & George's retrospective of their art so far this century is a portrait of them sitting in a cemetery amid floating drug baggies, their suits bright purple and green against the gravestones.
It sums up a stillness, a sadness and a romantic passion that breathes in this show - but you won't notice it straight away.
Instead you'll be carried along in a rush of cheeky provocations and ludicrous juxtapositions of word and image: a joyous embrace of modern life or even, pardon my French, a jouissance.
The pictures tower and expand in this perfect brutalist setting, as if you're walking through a city of art a dirty, disreputable city.
Ages (2001) is a yellow and red slab almost the scale of a cinema screen on which the artists' faces are surrounded by adverts for male sex workers: "BLACK GUY 24 Marco. Sexy, horny and waiting", "27 YEARS OLD Latin, and very good looking", "SKINHEAD JOE, 26 East End/10 mins Liverpool St Administers firm service".
Where are they now? Is Skinhead Joe running a cafe or is he dead? You find yourself not sniggering but wondering about these young men. It's a slice of life, a montage of transactions; moments; relations of power, desire and money in a metropolis.
The artists are great, scabrous chroniclers of London in the tradition of Hogarth.
Dit verhaal komt uit de October 07, 2025-editie van The Guardian.
Abonneer u op Magzter GOLD voor toegang tot duizenden zorgvuldig samengestelde premiumverhalen en meer dan 9000 tijdschriften en kranten.
Bent u al abonnee? Aanmelden
MEER VERHALEN VAN The Guardian
The Guardian
Heroic foodstuffs star in bonkers sort-of opera
Spare a thought for Amy J Payne, the gutsy mezzo-soprano who plays the title role in Opera North’s Pass the Spoon.
2 mins
December 15, 2025
The Guardian
At least 16 dead in terror attack on Jewish festival
Australia's prime minister condemned \"an act of evil antisemitism\" yesterday after gunmen opened fire on a Jewish festival at Sydney's Bondi beach, killing at least 16 people, including a child, and injuring dozens more.
3 mins
December 15, 2025
The Guardian
'It was a massacre'
Witnesses describe the horror - and the bravery
3 mins
December 15, 2025
The Guardian
Woltemade's bizarre own goal gifts Sunderland win
Eddie Howe is not the first, and is unlikely to be the last, manager outwitted by Régis Le Bris this season but few are likely to find the experience quite as painful.
3 mins
December 15, 2025
The Guardian
'It will not define us'
Howe rues 'freak' goal but vows to discard derby loss
1 mins
December 15, 2025
The Guardian
Comcast Proposed ITV takeover would have effect on public service broadcasting
The prospect of Comcast taking over ITV has prompted concerns about the impact on British public service broadcasting, a fact that Channel 4's new chief executive, moving from a senior post at Sky, will be all too aware of.
4 mins
December 15, 2025
The Guardian
Belarusian street protest leader freed from jail says: 'I don't regret anything'
The Belarusian street protest leader Maria Kolesnikova, who was freed at the weekend along with 122 other prisoners after more than five years in jail, has said she has no regrets about her role in the opposition against the autocratic president, Alexander Lukashenko.
3 mins
December 15, 2025
The Guardian
McCullum keeps faith in batting lineup with jobs on line
The seriesis on the line and, inalllike-lihood, jobs with it.
3 mins
December 15, 2025
The Guardian
Unpaid fees leave Ghanaian students at risk of deportation
Students from Ghana at UK universities say they are at risk of deportation after being stranded by their own government without promised scholarships or tuition fee payments.
1 mins
December 15, 2025
The Guardian
Dressed up like a dog winner: dachshunds do festive walkies
The pitter-patter of tiny paws brought joy - and more than a little chaos - to Hyde Park in London as hundreds of dachshunds and their owners gathered for the annual sausage dog Christmas walk yesterday.
1 mins
December 15, 2025
Listen
Translate
Change font size
