The Ten Speeches of Gilbert and George the sculptors
Gilbert & George
London. Art for All. 1971, spring
The very rare early portfolio detailing Gilbert & George's personal view of their own artistic persona(e).
From the edition limited to 10 numbered copies, signed by the artists in red ink to the front cover and inscribed '9 / 10' to rear cover.
Each leaf in 'The Ten Speeches of Gilbert and George ... ' features a similar text: for example for the first leaf ('One'): 'They weren't Good Artists / The weren't Bad Artists / But, My God, the were Artists', with the word 'Artists' on subsequent leaves replaced with 'Sculptors' ('Two'), 'People' ('Three'), 'Thinkers' ('Four'), 'Drawers' ('Five'), 'Writers' ('Six'), 'Painters' ('Seven'), 'Dreamers' ('Eight'), 'Searchers' ('Nine') and 'Men' ('Ten'). The vignettes for each sheet had been used previously in the earlier portfolio 'The Words of the Sculptors Gilbert and George' from 1970.
'The Ten Speeches of Gilbert and George ... ' was also an exhibition / performance held over the course of a week later in the year. The opening was on November 29th.
With a limitation of only ten copies, 'The Ten Speeches ... ' is necessarily rare. We can trace a single copy sold at auction in 2002 and one institutional copy, that at MoMA, only.
[see 'Gilbert & George's Art Titles 1969 - 2010 in Chronological Order' pg. 5, E (Exhibition) & LE (Limited Edition); see 'The Words of Gilbert & George' pp. 36 & 305].
From the edition limited to 10 numbered copies, signed by the artists in red ink to the front cover and inscribed '9 / 10' to rear cover.
Each leaf in 'The Ten Speeches of Gilbert and George ... ' features a similar text: for example for the first leaf ('One'): 'They weren't Good Artists / The weren't Bad Artists / But, My God, the were Artists', with the word 'Artists' on subsequent leaves replaced with 'Sculptors' ('Two'), 'People' ('Three'), 'Thinkers' ('Four'), 'Drawers' ('Five'), 'Writers' ('Six'), 'Painters' ('Seven'), 'Dreamers' ('Eight'), 'Searchers' ('Nine') and 'Men' ('Ten'). The vignettes for each sheet had been used previously in the earlier portfolio 'The Words of the Sculptors Gilbert and George' from 1970.
'The Ten Speeches of Gilbert and George ... ' was also an exhibition / performance held over the course of a week later in the year. The opening was on November 29th.
With a limitation of only ten copies, 'The Ten Speeches ... ' is necessarily rare. We can trace a single copy sold at auction in 2002 and one institutional copy, that at MoMA, only.
[see 'Gilbert & George's Art Titles 1969 - 2010 in Chronological Order' pg. 5, E (Exhibition) & LE (Limited Edition); see 'The Words of Gilbert & George' pp. 36 & 305].
[Ten leaves]. Square 8vo. (204 x 202 mm). Ten leaves numbered 'One' to 'Ten' each with central printed monochrome vignette portraits of Gilbert and George (each 40 x 30 mm) with alternating placement for each succeeding leaf above three line printed text, each leaf stamped with the red 'GG' stamp at lower right corner all recto only; sheet size: 190 x 190 mm. Loose as issued in original card wrapper with titles in black and signatures of Gilbert and George in red to front cover, justification '9 / 10' to rear cover in sepia ink.
#48158
