Пьер және Жилль: Фотосурет пен суреттің қарым-қатынасы және даулы туындылар

French artists

Pierre Commoy and Gilles Blanchard, also known as Pierre et Gilles, are French artists and romantic partners. They have been producing works together since 1976, creating a world where painting and photography meet. Their art is peopled by their friends and family, anonymous and famous, who appear in sophisticated life size sets the artists build in their studio. They meticulously apply paint to the photographs once printed on canvas. Accomplished image creators, Pierre and Gilles have built up an extraordinary contemporary iconography on the frontier between art history and popular culture. Pierre et Gilles have sometimes attracted controversy. For example, in 2012 there was a public outcry in Austria when their work entitled Vive la France was displayed on large street posters to advertise the Nackte Männer (English: Naked Men) exhibition created by Ilse Haider at the Leopold Museum in Vienna. It depicts three naked French footballers with their genitals fully revealed: the first black, the second Arab and the third white, to represent the multi ethnic composition of modern French society. The ensuing controversy led to an act of self censorship by the artists, who decided that the largest street posters should be changed, and instead use coloured ribbons to hide the players' genitals.

Pierre Commoy, the photographer, was born in 1950 in La Roche sur Yon. Gilles Blanchard, the painter, was born in 1953 in Le Havre. In 2000, Pierre et Gilles had a major retrospective at the New Museum in New York. In 2007, Pierre et Gilles had a major retrospective at the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris. In 2012, Pierre et Gilles exhibited a work entitled Vive la France in several art galleries across Europe. It depicts three naked French footballers with their genitals fully revealed: the first black, the second Arab/Muslim and the third white, to represent the multi ethnic composition of modern French society. It attracted controversy across Austria when it was displayed on large street posters to advertise the "Naked Men" exhibition created by Ilse Haider at the Leopold Museum in Vienna, with the result that coloured ribbons were used on the largest posters to hide the players' genitals.

People photographed by Pierre et Gilles include: musicians Amanda Lear (the cover of her 1980 album of Diamonds for Breakfast, one of their first assignments), an album Lio, Khaled, Étienne Daho, Marie France, Marc Almond, Siouxsie Sioux (the cover of the album Anima Animus by the Creatures Siouxsie's second band), Leslie Winer, Marilyn Manson, Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Erasure, Deee Lite, Nina Hagen and CocoRosie (the cover of their 2007 album The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn); model Naomi Campbell, actresses Tilda Swinton, drag diva Chi Chi LaRue, Catherine Deneuve and Lolo Ferrari, actors Salim Kechiouche, Jérémie Renier and Layke Anderson and also designers Jean Paul Gaultier and Paloma Picasso. They directed Marc Almond's 1990 music video for the song "A Lover Spurned" and Lamour's video clip for "Tu es foutu". Their most photographed muse is British male super model Enzo Junior, who has been photographed nine times.

Pierre, et Gilles : [photography bio file] (1 folder) is housed at the Museum of Modern Art. Includes announcements, clippings, press releases, brochures, reviews, invitations, small exhibition catalogs, and other ephemeral material filed through 2000; after 2000 all material is filed in the Library's artist files.