- published: 11 Nov 2013
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Gilbert Proesch (sometimes referred to as Gilbert Prousch, born 17 September 1943 in San Martin de Tor, Italy) and George Passmore (born 8 January 1942 in Plymouth, United Kingdom) are two artists who work together as a collaborative duo called Gilbert & George. They are known for their distinctive and highly formal appearance and manner and also for their brightly coloured graphic-style photo-based artworks.
Proesch was born in San Martin de Tor in South Tyrol, northern Italy, his mother tongue being Ladin. He studied art at the Sëlva School of Art and Hallein School of Art in Austria and the Akademie der Kunst, Munich, before moving to England.
Passmore was born in Plymouth in the United Kingdom, to a single mother in a poor household. He studied art at the Dartington College of Arts and the Oxford School of Art, then part of the Oxford College of Technology, which eventually became Oxford Brookes University.
The two first met on 25 September 1967 while studying sculpture at St Martins School of Art, now Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, one of six colleges in the University of the Arts, London. The two claim they came together because George was the only person who could understand Gilbert's rather poorly spoken English. In a 2002 interview with the Daily Telegraph, they said of their meeting: "it was love at first sight". They have claimed that they married in 2008.
Mark Gerard Lawson (born 11 April 1962) is an English journalist, broadcaster and author.
Born in Hendon, London, Lawson was raised in Yorkshire and is a Leeds United fan and a Northampton Town FC season ticket holder. He was educated at St Columba's College in St Albans and took a degree in English at University College London, where his lecturers included John Sutherland and A. S. Byatt. He currently lives near Towcester.
Lawson has been a freelance contributor to numerous publications since 1984, beginning on The Universe in that year, and for The Times from 1984 to 1986. He has written a column for The Guardian since 1995, having previously written for The Independent (1986–95), and has twice been TV Critic of the Year as well as winning many other journalism awards. However, his Guardian journalism has not been universally admired and Richard Gott, a former colleague, has commented that the "prevalence of the bland and the obsequious" on The Guardian is typified by Lawson's "embedded presence".