Gilbert & George at the Tate Modern. Photograph: Sarah Lee
Art hits the tabloids this morning with Gilbert & George being joined by Mirror journalist Damien Fletcher. The article is here though sadly without the paper's pictures of the three dressed in near-identical outfits and engaged in such typical Gilbert & George pursuits as marching in unison across the road, eating lamb chops in north London restaurant Mangal II and, naturally, drinking in the pub (art hangout the Golden Heart in Spitalfields).
Two things strike you reading it. The first is how much more open the tabloids are to what used to be called "modern art" these days - it's an extremely positive piece, which doesn't attempt to make Gilbert & George look like idiots. The second is just how much press Gilbert & George are doing to publicise their huge Tate retrospective: for instance, there were two features in one issue of Time Out the other week. Is this because they couldn't get a sponsor? Strange if so - as the Mirror piece seems to confirm, Gilbert & George are closer than their contemporaries to realising their long-held dream of "art for all". And despite the "swear words, bodily fluids and their own naked bodies", to which the Mirror refers, they are surely well on the way to national treasure status, no?
