PCA Principal awards Honorary Degree to Gilbert & George

Andrew Brewerton, Principal of Plymouth College of Art, presented notorious artists Gilbert & George with Honorary Doctorates at The Open University Conferment of Degrees ceremony at the Barbican in London on Saturday 31 March.

The Open University validates all of the degree programmes at Plymouth College of Art and after nominating Gilbert & George for this award, Professor Brewerton was asked to present the honorary degree. Describing the experience as a “real privilege” he delivered an encomium to the pair he called “A living sculpture... two persons but one artist.”

Gilbert Prousch and Plymouth-born George Passmore found fame as collaborative duo Gilbert & George after studying sculpture together at St. Martin’s College of Art from 1967. Since then they have inspired the work of art students and enthusiasts as their work has spanned the decades and transcended cultural boundaries, with ground-breaking shows in China and Russia.

They first came to public notice with The Singing Sculpture which they performed in 1970 at the Nigel Greenwood Gallery. Dressing their skin with metallic powder, the pair sang and performed a mechanical table dance to the strains of Flanagan and Allen’s popular music hall lyric ‘Underneath the Arches’, sometimes for a full day at a time.

In the decades that followed Gilbert & George continued to create together at their Fournier Street studio in Spitalfields, East London. They received the Turner Prize in 1986, and in 2005 represented the UK at the Venice Biennale.

Presenting the honorary degree, Professor Brewerton said: “Gilbert and George make art out of showing human reality. Not ‘the human condition’, but human reality in all its sticky mess and complexity, in order to create the freedom in which to become ever more human. They are truly a living sculpture, and by now living icons for successive generations of artists in Britain.”

Afterwards he said: “George Passmore was born in Plymouth, and the privilege of presenting this award to Gilbert & George comes at a time when there is a lot of excitement and enthusiasm around the importance of art and culture at both Plymouth College of Art and the city as a whole. We talked at length about the distinctive value of Art Colleges and Plymouth’s radical free school proposal, which caught their imagination.”

“We have been absolutely delighted with the level of support our application to open Plymouth School of Creative Arts has received and particularly with the level of parental support for our vision for education and our shared belief in the centrality of the arts to social value, culture, community, welfare and prosperity.”

The proposed new creative free school for children aged 4-16 in Plymouth represents a new model of potentially national significance that has received backing from parents and public figures alike. Plymouth College of Art is continuing to build support and more information can be found at www.plymouthschoolofcreativearts.co.uk and at the College’s Open Day on Saturday 12 May.

For more information visit http://www.plymouthschoolofcreativearts.co.uk/