‘You learn to be artists’: Gilbert & George on fame, rebellion and their secret to helping new people | Art and design

‘Hhello girls,” greets Gilbert Prousch, 82 years old, who is one half of the two actors Gilbert and George, shaking my hand when I arrived at his home with a very important guest. and Italian later.

“Like this,” she says, ushering us into the four-storey, 18th-century Georgian townhouse in Fournier Street, Spitalfields, east London, where she and the other half of the couple, George Passmore, 84, have lived since the late 1960s. Back then, he rented for less than £16 a month. Now, he has a whole house. I bet more money now.

I peeked through the door of one of the living rooms filled with antiques. When I enter the house, I feel it’s difficult. I noticed that there is no kitchen. Then I remember: Gilbert & George famous they don’t have a kitchen. They have seen cooking as a waste of time where they can develop skills – they reject the idea that “the average woman spends 27 years in the kitchen”, as they say – and they eat or bring food every day (more on what they like later).

We crossed the terrace to the heated studio to find George, dressed in a purple Irish suit that matched Prousch’s green. The pair switched from Scottish to Irish tweed in 2014 to mark their opposition to the Scottish independence referendum. Among their beautiful clothes, it is undoubtedly Gilbert & George that I have recognized: part artist duo, part double act known for being deadpan, sinister and unrepentant. The difference is the point: here are two gentlemen in fine stitching, whose skills have been evident over the years in sex, bodily fluids, profanity, religion, death, urban chaos and (ahem) schoolboy smut.

We sit at a long table in the studio, which is filled with work in progress: medicines from chemists, newspapers (George is reading today’s Telegraph) and cured meat.

“What have you two been doing? Eating sausages?” asked the stranger, taking the mick.

“Yes. Sandra brings them every day,” says George.

What Sandra is saying is unclear. It could be Sandra, a waitress at the Golden Grill, a local cafe where they ate every day as part of their “Living Sculpture” philosophy, which stated that even their daily activities became a work of art. But the Golden Grill closed years ago, and I’m not sure there is Sandra’s favorite, east London Mangal 1 Turkey grill. Or it could be Sandra Esqulant, owner of the nearby Golden Heart grocery store, who has cared for them for years. Or maybe whoever feeds them is just Sandra. At least I recognize one recent guest named, “Tracey” – like Emin – who appeared on Monday. His arrival caused a little panic because he did not know his favorite tea. Earl Grey, apparently.

Gilbert said: “We know him well. It’s no surprise – Emin was close in the 90s, when all three were part of Britart.

“This is my friend, Rich,” said the stranger. “He’s a writer.”

George said: “You wrote? “What kind of things? Novels?”

“No, about the newspapers. Have you got today’s Guardian?” I say, I want to show my line.

“No,” says George, shooting me his copy of the Telegraph. “What do you think we are?”

I’m here at home as a 41-year-old extra from London artist Endless. He was the first street artist to exhibit at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, a place more famous for Botticellis and Michelangelos than for pieces by artists with spray cans. The work, which he presented to the museum in 2021, is called ExG & G, and features Endless together with Gilbert & George in their studio: the two are shown as living sculptures, while Endless hides behind a magazine.

It is a symbol of the unexpected bond that has formed between them. Endless has become part of the furniture on Fournier Street so he can knock on the door whenever he wants (Gilbert & George don’t have cell phones). Their friendship has given rise to some rumors in the art world: are the two quietly giving their expertise – and legacy – to the ground? This is what I want to know.

The three seem like opposites: tweed-suited conservative mavericks on the one hand, street artist on the other. How did they meet?

“It has nothing to do with public toilets,” laughs George.

The fact is that the couple, who like to share stories far from their home, saw a small piece of street art on a nearby wall and photographed it for display at the 2015 exhibition in Singapore. When the Endless realized this, they joined in, surprised and amused. They began to correspond; ten years later, Endless now visits them every week.

The piece that caught Gilbert & George’s attention – called the Crotch Grab – is a signature of the Endless brand, and is a remake of the 90s Calvin Klein ads featuring Mark Wahlberg in his underwear (Endless has also created a new version of the Guardian photo). What did they like most about it?

George said: “It’s hard to explain, but I was delighted. In 2018, Endless showed Gilbert & George holding their collars in Union Jack boxer shorts.

Talk is turning to the duo’s new show, a remake of their 1990 London and New York show Worlds and Windows. It is on display at the Gilbert & George Center, a 19th-century brewery that opened in 2023 around their home. In line with their “Art for All” ethos, the center offers free admission, and attracts, according to the duo, “a small but dangerous, or useless group”.

Some of the original photos from the show hang on the wall.

“You know George is dead—George Crompton?” says George, pointing to someone in one of the new paintings. Crompton was a homeless man – a “lost soul”, as he said – who arrived most days, and who called him to warm up. George said: “It was a very difficult time in his life, so we have to learn from it. We can all be Georges if something goes wrong.”

Crompton sits in what Gilbert calls a “relaxing chair” in the corner of the studio, watching the pair work. George said: “It was interesting for him. He was a very simple, nice, calm person.

“We went to see him when he died in the hospital,” adds Gilbert.

“He wasn’t happy,” George said. “I think he knew and accepted that it was going to end.”

Crompton now appears, after all, in two new prints at the duo’s latest show, standing outside their famous front door.

“You made him immortal,” I say.

“I like to think that way, as close as we can get,” says George.

With constant visitors – friends, neighbors, caterers – passing through their homes, I wonder how octogenarians feel about an artist half their age inviting himself around, seemingly whenever he wants. “So far so good,” smiles George.

And how does Endless feel about his place in this around? He said: “You learn to be an artist from people who are bigger than you.”

“How to learn to be a master of the head, stupid,” says George.

Endless studied Gilbert & George at the Cambridge School of Art (“Cambridge? You must be very clever,” pipes Gilbert). Gilbert studied at Val Gardena, Hallein and Munich; George at Dartington and the Oxford School of Art (“I’ve been overeducated,” he says). They later met at St Martin’s School of Art on London’s Charing Cross Road in the 60s.

Gilbert said: “At that time St Martin’s was very famous in the world at that time.

“Charing Cross Road in the late 60s was the center of fashion and music,” adds George. “Every young player should be photographed there.” Did St Martin make it they feel famous? “Yes,” says George.

“But you rebelled against what they were teaching,” says Endless.

“We didn’t accept the traditional: shapes and colors,” says Gilbert. “We did our part.”

Why did they decide to work together? “For a living sculpture, it was a great idea to have two people, not one,” says Gilbert.

George adds: “Two make one song; “The world is two, in cities, in forests, and even in animals.”

“Are two now three?” I ask. “Is it?” “He’s asking if there’s three of us,” says Endless.

What I want to know is: are you giving your legacy to Endless?

“I don’t even know what ‘inheritance’ means,” Endless said.

George, his schoolboy is returning in a hurry.

Gilbert & George is still on – lunch is due any minute – but it’s just in time for Endless to usher me into the Gilbert & George Centre, where the previous show is being canceled for the next one. On the wall, George Crompton is already a few meters away: the spirit lost from his studio chair is now finding Gilbert & George to send in full.

The artists have been planning for a long time to be absent, even though they died as part of their project. The works they still have should be left in the middle, free to the public – the ultimate extension of Art for All. If they’re giving anything to Endless, it might be less about ownership than emotion.

He said: “I see how they live, hear their past stories, and how they have it in their minds to always move forward and never stop. “They have their vision, their thoughts, and they never go away.” Whatever they hear at that time, they turn into art.

Perhaps this is how a legacy is handed down: not a legacy, but an example. Indelible has been pushing forward this year: working on large-scale paintings alongside the Indelible Fine Art Gallery in Brighton; and planning exhibitions in London, Milan and Rome.

“You can’t take away what they’ve done,” says Endless. “But you can carry that spirit forward.”

Our George Crompton, Worlds and Windows is at the Gilbert & George Centre, London, until 2027; Endless X London is at Cris Contini Contemporary, London, to 25 July.