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Mental No. 3
Artist
Gilbert & George
(British)
Date1976
Medium25 photographs
DimensionsOverall: 122 3/4 x 103 3/8 in. (311.79 x 262.57 cm)
Credit LineCollection of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Museum purchase made possible by a grant from The Burnett Foundation
Object number1998.13.A-Y
Status
Not on viewSignedsigned and inscribed in central panel "Gilbert and George"
Copyright© Gilbert & George
Category
Label TextTwo individuals, one artist: Gilbert & George have merged their lives and work since the late 1960s. At St. Martin’s School in London, where the duo met in 1967, they began to develop ideas that would free them from the traditional art “object” and studio while seamlessly integrating art and artmaker. Since 1969, the artists have presented themselves as “living sculptures.” For Singing Sculpture, first performed in 1969, the two men, with identically painted faces and hands and dressed in conservative suits, sang songs and performed slow, mechanical movements accompanied by a tape playing “Underneath the Arches,” a popular British song from the 1930s. By the 1970s, the artists had integrated the performative aspects of their work with photography, creating large-scale photo works made of numerous framed panels that juxtapose portraits of the artists with images of their surroundings, particularly areas of London and its countryside. Taken almost daily, these individual photographs became a form of expressive sign language through which the artists contemplated various decisions.
Mental No. 3, 1976, is a classic work from the mid-1970s in which Gilbert & George contemplated the dilemma of choosing between urban culture and nature. The twenty-five photographic panels are arranged in a grid: images of the individual artists printed on brilliant red backgrounds form a cruciform shape within the grid; surrounding them are alternating black-and-white images of blossoms and London street life. Rather than advocating a single position, the artists’ stances and faces reflect feelings of conflict and indecision, evoking thoughtful bewilderment, searching, and longing. Suggesting the stained-glass windows of a church, Mental No. 3 evokes a secular meditation on where people put their faith and what motives drive their decisions.
Mental No. 3, 1976, is a classic work from the mid-1970s in which Gilbert & George contemplated the dilemma of choosing between urban culture and nature. The twenty-five photographic panels are arranged in a grid: images of the individual artists printed on brilliant red backgrounds form a cruciform shape within the grid; surrounding them are alternating black-and-white images of blossoms and London street life. Rather than advocating a single position, the artists’ stances and faces reflect feelings of conflict and indecision, evoking thoughtful bewilderment, searching, and longing. Suggesting the stained-glass windows of a church, Mental No. 3 evokes a secular meditation on where people put their faith and what motives drive their decisions.