GILBERT & GEORGE - Marsilio Arte

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GILBERT & GEORGE

edited by Mario Codognato, 64 pages , 1^{^} ed. 2026 - Catalogues - ITA,ENG - ISBN 9791254634066

Sonnabend Collection Mantova Gilbert & George Contemporary art

«Creiamo le nostre immagini usando le tre forze vitali: la mente, l’anima e il sesso. E questo porta a ciò che chiamiamo “processo creativo”, la seconda cosa più entusiasmante della vita. Ed è davvero, davvero entusiasmante essere creativi.» (Gilbert & George, Daytripping Forever!, 2025). Il catalogo propone un focus approfondito sugli artisti britannici Gilbert & George, con i quali Ileana Sonnabend e Antonio Homem hanno instaurato un sodalizio umano e professionale durato decenni: fu proprio la scultura vivente The Singing Sculpture, infatti, a inaugurare la nuova galleria Sonnabend di New York nel 1971, segnando la prima mostra personale del duo londinese negli Stati Uniti. Il saggio introduttivo di Mario Codognato illustra la visione curatoriale che ha portato alla selezione di otto opere emblematiche capaci di ripercorrere i passaggi chiave di quasi sessant’anni di carriera, affrontando i temi principali dell’arte di Gilbert & George: la politica, la religione, il sesso, l’identità urbana, la mortalità dell’uomo. Otto lavori che mettono in dialogo la stagione degli esordi con la loro produzione più recente: dai monumentali disegni a carboncino di The Bar II (1972), che creano uno spazio sospeso, silenzioso e melanconico, alle celebri opere in cui i corpi dei due artisti si frammentano in una varietà di personificazioni. In Free-Fall (2005), Bale (2013), Piss Off! (2014), Beardway (2016), Thrice (2019), Free HK (2020), X (2022), le figure iconiche di Gilbert & George attraversano la quotidianità immerse in un coloratissimo immaginario urbano, delineando un diario della loro vita e dello straordinario
microcosmo del nostro mondo. Le parole degli stessi artisti percorrono, inoltre, tutta la pubblicazione, restituendo la consapevolezza e il disincanto del loro pensiero.

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GILBERT & GEORGE

Sonnabend Collection Mantova

from September 10, 2026, to April 5, 2027

The relationship between Gilbert & George and the Sonnabend Gallery began in 1971, when the famous The Singing Sculpture inaugurated the gallery’s New York venue, marking the beginning of a personal and professional partnership spanning decades.

Nearly twenty years after their last major solo exhibition in Italy, the Sonnabend Collection—already home to the historic work Berries (1985), on permanent display in Mantua—presents a focused and conceptually rigorous exhibition at Palazzo della Ragione.This selection of eight emblematic works, all on view in Italy for the first time, traces the key milestones of the artists’ nearly six-decade career while exploring the themes that have shaped their practice: sexuality, politics, religion, urban identity, and mortality.

The exhibition layout is structured around a direct dialogue between their early years and recent production. It opens with the monumental charcoal drawings of The Bar II (1972), a suspended, silent, and melancholy space.

From the 1980s onwards, the focus shifts toward their famous large-scale pictures arranged in vibrant geometric grids, reflecting the microcosm of our world. Through this unmistakable technique, the exhibition explores irreverent and provocative chapters such as Piss off! (2014)—a powerful act of visual rebellion against social conventions—and the heightened urban anxiety of Bale (2013), leading to the ironic and surreal imagery of Beardway (2016), where the artists conceal their own likenesses behind the contemporary obsession with beards, transforming themselves into contemporary pop icons.

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The Sonnabend Collection in Mantua hosts the Gilbert & George exhibition

by the Editorial Team

Racconti da MArte

Coinciding with the thirtieth edition of marsilioarte.it/en/magazine/michelangelo-pistoletto-ileana-sonnabend-festivaletteratura-mantua/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Festivaletteratura, Palazzo della Ragione in Mantua ‒hosting masterpieces from the Sonnabend Collection ‒ raises the curtain on the exhibition by Gilbert & George, whose history intersected with that of the Sonnabend gallery in 1971, when their performance, The Singing Sculpture, inaugurated its New York location.
Decades later, this bond is renewed with the arrival, in the halls of the Sonnabend Collection Mantua, of eight works emblematic of the British duo’s artistic philosophy, temporarily joining Berries (1985), the work already included in the permanent exhibition at Palazzo della Ragione.
Along a path that winds through the production of Gilbert & George, the main themes of their work emerge – from politics to sex, from religion to urban identity to immortality – and the techniques used – from the powerful charcoal drawings of The Bar II (1972) to the famous photographic interventions with a geometric grid such as Piss off! (2014), Bale (2013) and Beardway (2016). When asked by curator and artistic director Mario Codognato about their transition from large-scale drawings to photography, the duo emphasized that their art stems from their head, soul, and sex. Their meeting with Ileana Sonnabend is described in these words: “1971, LIVING SCULPTURE, Show Room du Jardin Stores Louise, Brussels, an elderly lady approached us. ‘My name is Ileana Sonnabend. I am opening a gallery in New York, I want you to be the first exhibition.’ That is how we met Ileana for the first time. The rest is the history.”
In parallel with the exhibition, Sonnabend Collection Mantua is updating its permanent display, in keeping with the dynamism that has always characterized the collection. Campbell’s Soup Can (Turkey noodle) by Andy Warhol and Large Spool by Roy Lichtenstein temporarily leave the rooms in favour of the entrance of three works on paper made by Roy Lichtenstein from the early 1960s ‒ AIRPLANE (1961), MAN WITH COAT (1961) and KNOCK KNOCK (1961) ‒ and four canvases by Andy Warhol dedicated to Flowers from 1964. The section dedicated to Jeff Koons welcomes two works from his early career ‒ Buster Keaton (1988) and Jim Beam ‒ Barrel Car (1986) replacing Wild Boy and Puppy (1988) and Gazing Ball (Standing Woman) (2014).

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