Actually Seeing The Gilbert and George Exhibition and The Work Itself

Going around the actual Tate Modern exhibition, I thought might help me understand all the fuss, maybe even convert me, or at least give me an understanding of their work.

It starts with some of their latest work based on the bombings in London 7/7 and 21/7 in their traditional panel style. I saw this and it didn't really touch me other than make me want to go in to see the full extent of their work or to put it honestly, anything else they could do, that I might like or at least, that wouldn't leave me cold.
It started well as it started with their early work. It was refreshing to see the artists before they became a caricature. Their early work such as their Sculpture by Post and their Singing Flanagan and Alan sculpture have a wonderful humour to them that still has a freshness, possibly because they are smiling and relaxed and not trying to be "Gilbert and George" but just making art and making a point . It seems that the rot started when they did their drawing pieces, and became overly concerned with people trying to figure out which of them had drawn which part. This seems to be when they became more concerned about the perception of Gilbert and George than of the work itself. I know that this is part of their Art and was particularly relevant at the time, but it is where their work begins to leave me. It is ironic as I really liked the examples of the drawings that were in the exhibition. This is the point when the first of their signature panel pieces came about. Oddly, in the exhibition, I actually quite liked it, it seemed like a very natural progression for the earlier photographic work to take the scale of the drawing and in the context of the exhibition, I enjoyed it until I realised that it was not going to stop, all I could hope for was a change in colours.

From here on things went down hill, although the content changed with the period the unchanging nature of the presentation meant that it became a bit of a blur. We lurched from room to room grasping for differences, from familiar pieces to recognisable figures (were we the only people who noticed a young Martin Clunes, I don't know?) It was very hard to appreciate individual pieces. I got more and more bored, additions of nudity, piss, shit and cum did little to alleviate it, maybe it would have been different if I hadn't been aware it would be coming. My heart did jump a little when I saw the pieces that were exhibited in the White Cube but only because I new the end was in sight.