The following text, under the heading “We met in London last year,” appears on the wall above the exit from the new Gilbert & George retrospective at the de Young Museum in San Francisco:
We began to dream of a world of beauty and happiness of great riches and pleasures new of joy and laughter of children and sweets of the music of colour and the sweetness of shape, a world of feeling and meaning a newer better world, a world of delicious disasters of heartrending sorrow, of loathing and dread, a world complete, all the world an art gallery.
It’s from a pamphlet that accompanied one of their earliest collaborative works, a performance piece titled “The Singing Sculpture” (1968-1970), a 1997 video version of which is playing in the museum as part of the exhibit. The pamphlet and other artifacts are on display.
Gilbert & George opens today and runs through May 18, 2008. More info at famsf.org/deyoung.