April 2020

Choosing letter G is a good reason to remember a few gorgeous artists that made art even greater. This time we are going to talk about artistic creators only. Let it be a special edition devoted to those who really deserve it (and yet far not all of them). 

Thomas Gainsborough (1727 – 1788)
English portrait and landscape painter, originator of the 18-century British Landscape School. Along with another painter, Joshua Reynolds, he is deemed to be one of the greatest artists of his century — age of rococo. However, unlike his rival, Gainsborough didn’t stick to the canons of the praised Renaissance, painting in a more fashionable manner. Born in the family of a weaver, Thomas Gainsborough started showing some real talent for drawing from the early years, thereby he continued studying art in London at the age of 13 — first under Hubert Gravelot, then associating with painters William Hogarth and Francis Hayman. The artist’s genius was soon recognized: remarkably enough, Thomas Gainsborough became a founding member of the Royal Academy in 1769 — and stopped exhibiting his works there four years later due to the tense relationship with the institution. Gainsborough created a number of portraits of the high society that brought him honour, since he defined himself more through the landscape art. In his latter creative period strong influence of the Flemish Baroque painter Anthony Van Dyck with his formal approach is felt. Another celebrated artist John Constable described works by Gainsborough in the following way: ‘On looking at them we find tears in our eyes and know not what brings them’. Today paintings by Thomas Gainsborough, among which there are famous  ‘The Blue Boy’, ‘Cornard Wood, near Sudbury, Suffolk’, ‘Georgina, Duchess of Devonshire’, ‘Mr and Mrs Andrews’ can be found around the world both in museums and private collections, yet primarily in the National Gallery, London.

Gutai (The Gutai Group) (Years active: 1954 – 1972)
A Japanese art movement which name may be translated as concreteness. Based on the concern of individualism, Gutai artists rebelled against the conservatism of art and totalitarian regime which prevailed in the post-war Japan. The group wanted to expand the notion of what art can be, yet maintaining their connection to the painting. The Gutai Art Association was founded by Jirõ Yoshihara in the small town of Ashiya in 1954. The birth of the movement happened, first, thanks to the rich artistic background of Yoshihara who had been painting and teaching for 20 years before starting Gutai, second, owing to the financial support of his father, a wealthy merchant. The movement quickly assembled its members from different small artistic societies of the Ashiya region — such as The Zero-Kai and Genbi, also founded by Yoshihara. Such artists as Tanaka Atsuko, Saburõ Murakami, Toshio Yoshida, Shuji Mukai, Shozo Shimamoto and a couple dozen of others are considered to be the part of the group. Despite redefining the former cultural experience of Japan and traditional art forms in its’ practice, the Gutai Group was strongly influenced by the international art scene: works by Jackson Pollock were praised in the Gutai 1956 Manifesto, so was the art of the Art Informel movement.

Gilbert & George (Years active: 1969 till present)
A UK-resided artistic duo (and a gay couple as well) who is mostly famous for their performance art and photo-based works. The collaboration consists of its two founding members, Gilbert Proesch (born in Italy in 1943) and George Passmore (born in the UK in 1942). The two met while studying sculpture at Saint Martin’s School of Art and began living & working together. Probably the first artwork that emerged from their collaboration was The Singing Sculpture (1969), for which they covered their heads and hands with bright metallised powder and sang along for the recording of Flanagan and Allen’s song ‚Underneath the Arches‚ while staying on the table. Later came a series of photoworks tackling acute social issues such as religion, sexuality, poverty as political costs, search for identity and e.t.c. The thing is the both artists came from relatively modest backgrounds, thus carrying a democratic approach to art throughout their practice: ‚To be with art is all we ask‚ — is their famous saying, which can also be read as art is for all. Another crucial point in the duo’s artistic practice is that Gilbert and George considered life to be art and vice versa. They stepped against the haughtiness of the art world criticizing the concept of good taste and elitism. To the naked eye, their works might not be taken seriously, however, making brash and glaring art, the duo was trying to get through the society’s rules that called for improvement. To enhance the effect of their artistic message, Gilbert and George usually put on formal tweed suits, just like an ordinary middle-class couple who dare to open their mouths and make a statement.

However, the most remarkable thing about the art group is that they a) never disclose who stand behind masks (as one Guerilla Girl admitted in the interview, it was just her partner who knew, her loved ones and her dog) and b) throughout the history of Guerilla’s artistic activity there have been about 50 members — they’ve changed but always stayed anonymous and belligerent and humorous at once.