They were students in sculpture when they stated that each of them was a work of art for the other. They demonstrated it in happenings where they were drinking much gin. Their message is socially displaced and their strict business suits hide their real personality within an indecipherable mystery. Photography, the necessary complement to the happenings, has become their main business.
One of them explained that the dual work enables to erase the inhibition or self doubt of the individuals. His fellow could have made the same statement. They follow the example of Flaubert or Magritte according to whom the strength and originality of the message may be raised above a trivial bourgeois appearance.
Gilbert and George divide their figures in elements which they assemble in an artist's frame. On October 5 in New York, Phillips sells Day, executed in 1978, lot 16 estimated $ 600K.
Day is composed of sixteen panels 50 x 40 cm for an overall size of 200 x 160 cm. The images are constituting two troubling registers questioning in a different way the meaning of everyday life. The four characters at the top are not identifiable and their activity is not explained. Two of them sleep on the ground. The bottom side is a double selfie hand-colored in deep red.
Day had been sold for $ 276K including premium by Christie's on 14 May 2003.
SOLD for $ 670K including premium