TEX RUBINOWITZ | BEND IT. An exhibition on the role of music in the work of Gilbert & George

TEX RUBINOWITZ

Born in Hanover in 1961, living in Vienna since 1984. Studied under Oswald Oberhuber at the University of Applied Art, but only for one week. Has been drawing regularly for various newspapers since 1985, including Falter, Der Standard, FAZ and Titanic. Numerous book publications. Bandleader of the group Mäuse.

BEND IT   An exhibition on the role of music in the work of Gilbert & George
Based on their obsession with the 1966 song Bend It by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich and the popular 1931 hit Underneath the Arches by Bud Flanagan, to which the two artists appeared as singing sculptures, Tex Rubinowitz developed a musical reference system in oil on wood.

On iconographic woodwormy votive tablets it is claimed that the two great artists would also be interested in Elvis Presley, Gustav Mahler, Madonna and the Sex Pistols. Here the wood plays the role of the unglamorous, of the shabby fan, and the worms play the part of the parasitic stalker who twists the image of his idols in the way he would like to see it.

As well as this, TEX RUBINOWITZ shows pictures by three other artists he has commissioned to portray GILBERT & GEORGE:

SUSANNE KLOBASSA, born in Düsseldorf in 1957, lives and works in Vienna. Trained as a cartoon film maker with Curt Linda in Munich. Attended the German Masters School for Fashion in Munich and the Hetzendorf Fashion School in Vienna. Has been a stylist and costume designer for stage, film and photo productions.

HARUKO MAEDA, born in Tokyo in 1983, lives and works in Linz. Took a degree in painting at the Nihon University in Tokyo. Since 2005, degree course in painting at the Linz University of Art.

MAX MÜLLER, born in Wolfsburg in 1963, musician (Mutter, Tödliche Doris, Die Ärzte, Camping Sex) and artist (Max Müller draws in the way he sings, with immediacy, raw, but for all his manginess a gentle urge for love and justice shines through his drawings…).

The following films by GILBERT & GEORGE will be shown:

A Portrait of the Artists as Young Men, 1970

Gordon’s Makes Us Drunk, 1972

In the Bush, 1972

The World of Gilbert & George, 1981

The Singing Sculpture, 1992

The Secret Files of Gilbert & George, 2000

WOLF & RITTERSKAMP: Arts + Crafts Spectacular #1, 2010

In this animation film the artists Gilbert & George talk about their trip to the countryside with an unexpected ending.


IAN RITTERSKAMP, born in Düsseldorf in 1974 and SÉBASTIEN WOLF, born in Essen in 1976 both studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. The artists live and work in Berlin. Arts + Crafts Spectacular #1 was shown at the 11th Triennale Kleinplastik Fellbach, 2010.

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