Lot 76: GILBERT & GEORGE (B. 1943 & B. 1942) Holy Piss signed, titled and dated

GILBERT & GEORGE (B. 1943 & B. 1942) Holy Piss signed, titled and dated ’HOLY PISS 1996 Gilbert & George’ (lower right) hand-dyed gelatin silver prints in artist’s frames, in six parts each: 28 x 33ºin. (71 x 84.4cm.) overall: 55v x 99¬in. (142 x 253.2cm.) Executed in 1996

EXHIBITED: New York, Lehmann Maupin, Gilbert & George The Fundamental Pictures, 1997 (illustrated in colour, unpaged). This exhibition later travelled to New York, Sonnabend Gallery.

LITERATURE: C. Ratclif, Gilbert & George: The Complete Pictures 1971 - 2005, Volume 2, New York, 1986, p. 1237 (illustrated in colour, p. 866). Holy Piss, taken from Gilbert & George’s vital The Fundamental Pictures series, emblematises how the East London duo’s work evolved in the mid-1990s. Spread across six photographs, a magnifed droplet of microscoped urine creates a beautifully ornate gilt surface against a neutral background. In the right-hand corner, the title, a comical phrase of English slang, is exclaimed like a newspaper headline above the artists’ signature, subverting the content of the work with a humorously British idiom. Having examined themes ranging from the claustrophobia of urban conditions to the ecstasy of spiritual enlightenment, Gilbert & George progressed towards an examination of the physical substances within themselves. Putting bodily fuids such as blood and tears under the microscope and photographing the results, Gilbert & George were able to create an entire visual universe whilst exploring themes relating to the human condition. In an extraordinary discovery, they found a wealth of associative objects and symbols in this microscopic sample, from crucifxes to Celtic jewellery. Here the result of their experiments looks almost like a gilded pebble, a precious object with a network of thorny, delicate arteries. The tonguein- cheek title of the work reinforces its visual transformation from something societally perceived of as base to something beautiful, a glorifcation of something repugnant into something sacred. ’… we found endless possibilities from piss… machine guns… hockey sticks… fowers…’ –GILBERT & GEORGE

PROVENANCE: Patrick De Brock Gallery, Knokke. Paula Cooper Gallery, New York. Acquired from the above by the present owner.