16 photographs, gelatin silver print on paper with dye on paper mounted onto board
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
ARTIST ROOMS
National Heritage Memorial Fund
Art Fund
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/gilbert-george-1163" aria-label="More by Gilbert & George" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Gilbert & George</a>
Thirst
ARTIST ROOMS
Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund 2008
actions: processes and functions
adults
body
cartoon / comic strip
diagrammatic
emotions, concepts and ideas
formal qualities
head / face
homosexuality
man
people
sex
sex and relationships
sexual organs
society
symmetry
urinating
urine
<p>‘We are driven by everything that is slightly taboo, by the forbidden.’ Sexuality is a central theme of Gilbert &amp; George’s work, which is explored in images that are often provocative and disconcerting. <i>Hunger</i> and <i>Thirst </i>show a sexual act that is depicted in a cartoon-like, almost diagrammatic, manner. The artists have commented on these works: ‘we wanted to confront the viewers in a museum, as normally you don’t see this stuff, and make them accept it. It was done in a cartoon like way because in reality they would never have been accepted at that time’.</p><p><em>Gallery label, February 2010</em></p>
paper unique 16 photographs gelatin silver print dye mounted onto board
13 February 2007 – 7 May 2007
2007-05-07
15 February 2007 – 7 May 2007
2007-05-07
2007-02-15
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
9 June 2007 – 9 September 2007
2007-09-09
2007-06-09
Haus der Kunst (Munich, Germany)
17 October 2007 – 13 January 2008
2008-01-13
2007-10-17
Castello di Rivoli (Turin, Italy)
2007-02-13
Gilbert & George
Exhibition
13 April 2009 – 21 March 2010
2010-03-21
2 March 2009 – 21 March 2010
2010-03-21
2009-03-02
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-04-13
Gilbert & George
Collection based display
29 July 2010 – 12 December 2010
2010-12-12
29 July 2010 – 1 November 2010
2010-11-01
2010-07-29
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Edinburgh, UK)
http://www.nationalgalleries.org/
2010-07-29
ARTIST ROOMS Gilbert & George
Collection based display
28 April 2018 – 2 September 2018
2018-09-02
28 April 2018 – 2 September 2018
2018-09-02
2018-04-28
Brighton Museum and Art Gallery (Brighton, UK)
http://www.brighton.virtualmuseum.info
2018-04-28
ARTIST ROOMS 2018: Gilbert & George
Loan-out
Thirst
frame (each): 605 × 505 × 23 mm
displayed: 2424 × 2020 × 23 mm
<a href="/search?gid=999999788" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">ARTIST ROOMS</a>
Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the <a href="/search?gid=999999967" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">National Heritage Memorial Fund</a> and the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 2008
<div class="text">
<p>
<i>Thirst</i> is a work by Gilbert &amp; George that depicts an exchange of bodily fluid in a cartoonish style<i>. </i>It consists of sixteen hand-coloured, individually framed photograms arranged to form a single image. The thin black lines of the frames create a four by four grid across the composition. Two penises extending from the lower edge of the image cross each other diagonally, and both are predominately black with a red glans. A yellow stream projects from each penis to be received orally by two heads that emerge from the upper two corners of the piece, their heads almost entirely black apart from blue eyes, white ears and a white hairline. Their open mouths are the same red as the two glans. The figures and their genitalia are surrounded by white space. The title and date of the work, in addition to the artists’ signatures, are printed in black ink in the bottom right panel.</p>
<p>From 1981 onwards the range of Gilbert &amp; George’s visual repertoire expanded significantly with the introduction to their work of the photogram technique that was used to produce <i>Thirst.</i> To make such works the artists created stencils and laid them onto light-sensitive paper. By exposing it to light the image of the stencil became imprinted on the paper, onto which bright dyes were then selectively applied. The photograms were dry mounted onto thin board and framed in black-painted aluminium frames with Perspex glazing. When exhibited the framed works are hung on horizontal tracks.</p>
<p>The bold colours and simplified shapes of the photograms allowed Gilbert &amp; George to engage directly with sexual themes. This was because, in the artists’ opinion, it tempered the effect of this sexual content through the playful nature of the constructed images:</p>
<p class="cttext">
</p><blockquote>We wanted to confront the viewers in a museum, as normally you don’t see this stuff, and make them accept it. It was done in a cartoon-like way because in reality they would never have been accepted at that time.<br/>(Quoted in ‘Hunger’, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, <a href="https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/88829/hunger">https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/88829/hunger</a>, accessed 18 January 2016.)</blockquote>
<p>
<i>Thirst</i> depicts a reciprocal exchange of bodily fluids as a fulfilling act. Art historian Wolf Jahn observes that <i>Thirst</i> ‘stresses thirst without necessarily implying a mutual act of drinking, and thus acquires an emblematic character which alludes to the thirst for sex in the abstract’ (Jahn 1989, p.330). Similarly, in <i>Hunger </i>1982 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gilbert-george-hunger-ar00173" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AR00173</span></a>), the oral reception of a penis can ultimately be assumed to alleviate a sexual desire as opposed to a craving based on nutritional needs. Despite this overtly sexual content, art historian Marco Livingstone argues that Gilbert &amp; George avoid the pornographic, observing that in <i>Thirst</i>, ‘an exchange of body substances is portrayed as a sacramental act, one that transcends disgust, as it does in the sexual act itself’ (Marco Livingstone, ‘From the Heart’, in Tate Modern 2007, p.20). Art historian Bernard Marcadé further argues that this use of explicit imagery was not intended to offend, but instead that their inclusion of bodily fluids and, later, faeces and defecation is a result of the artists’ attempt to depict a brutally honest examination of life, one which includes the body’s natural processes (Bernard Marcadé, <i>Gilbert &amp; George</i>, exhibition catalogue, Muse´e d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris 1997, p.256). This statement fits well with Gilbert &amp; George’s claim, put forward in their 1986 declaration ‘What Our Art Means’, that: ‘We want to find and accept all the good and bad in ourselves … We want to spill our blood, brains and seed in our life-search for new meanings and purpose to give to life’ (Gilbert &amp; George in Ratcliff 1986, p.vii).</p>
<p>In conjunction with <i>Thirst</i>, Gilbert &amp; George created the works <i>Hunger </i>and <i>Sperm Eaters</i> 1982 (Tate Modern 2007, reproduced p.92). In addition to having similar formal qualities, these works engage with the oral reception of male genitalia and its excretions. <i>Hunger </i>looks at reciprocal fellatio and <i>Sperm Eaters</i> depicts male ejaculation. While scatological content had been previously implied or referenced in Gilbert &amp; George’s work before this point, it had not been so openly displayed (see, for instance, <i>George the Cunt and Gilbert the Shit</i> 1969, Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gilbert-george-george-the-cunt-and-gilbert-the-shit-ar00170" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AR00170</span></a>). The use of photograms not only allowed the artists to present gallery audiences with sexual imagery, but also, more significantly, with homosexual imagery. <i>Thirst </i>was created only fifteen years after homosexual acts were decriminalised in the UK. Gilbert &amp; George have discussed the abuse they faced living in London as openly gay men during this period. In a 1974 interview with writer Gordon Burn, Gilbert explained that ‘It was the time of the queer-bashing’ (‘Gilbert &amp; George: Interview with Gordon Burn’, reproduced in Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Robert Violette (eds.), <i>The Words of Gilbert &amp; George</i>, London 1997,<i> </i>p.72). <i>Thirst</i> simultaneously speaks of social progress and the continued challenges that were faced by the gay community.</p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Carter Ratcliff, <i>Gilbert &amp; George:</i> <i>The Complete Pictures, 1971–1985</i>, exhibition catalogue, CAPC Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux, Bordeaux 1986, reproduced p.184.<br/>Wolf Jahn, <i>The Art of Gilbert &amp; George</i>, London 1989, reproduced p.338.<br/>
<i>Gilbert &amp; George: Major Exhibition</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Modern,<i> </i>London 2007, reproduced p.91.</p>
<p>Daisy Silver<br/>The University of Edinburgh<br/>January 2016</p>
<p>
<i>The University of Edinburgh is a research partner of ARTIST ROOMS.</i>
</p>
</div>

Summary
2017-06-14T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p>‘We are driven by everything that is slightly taboo, by the forbidden.’ Sexuality is a central theme of Gilbert &amp; George’s work, which is explored in images that are often provocative and disconcerting. <i>Hunger</i> and <i>Thirst </i>show a sexual act that is depicted in a cartoon-like, almost diagrammatic, manner. The artists have commented on these works: ‘we wanted to confront the viewers in a museum, as normally you don’t see this stuff, and make them accept it. It was done in a cartoon like way because in reality they would never have been accepted at that time’.
<br/></p>

Display caption
2010-02-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
actions: processes and functions adults body cartoon / comic strip diagrammatic emotions, concepts and ideas formal qualities head / face homosexuality man people sex sex and relationships sexual organs society symmetry urinating urine