GILBERT & GEORGE.

The Red Boxers.

Eight folded cards (each 4 pp.) with foil-printed illus., four on red stock, four on black, all signed (in red or black ink). London: Art for All, September 1975.

A scarce complete set of the artists’ last Postal Sculpture, mailed each week for eight weeks to their correspondents. The text printed on the eight cards reads:

I: “In the room we looked across / The WOODEN AIR between .”

II: “They moved and paused a little / Not seeing ANYTHING .”

III: “Leaning on the window sill awhile / Two STONE-ISH faces on the floor .”

IV: “And tilted, MOVED on with dry / boards and then to STAND .”

V: “STILLNESS breathing through our / air makes us still breathe .”

VI: “Walking across the window glass / Dry figures COME to them .”

VII: “Back on back shooting through / the closed STUDY .”

VIII: “Two in the CHAPEL with life / around the suits .”

All of the cards are in fine condition. With one mailed envelope present, which has been stamped with the work’s title “Red Boxers” and embossed with the artists’ “Art For All” seal on the flap. The entire series was presumably sent to Mr. Ian R. Grant (1904-93), a Scottish painter, art historian, and educator. We have located complete examples of this work at the National Gallery of Art (D.C.), New York Public Library, Museum of Modern Art (NY), Victoria & Albert Museum, and Museo Reina Sofía.

❧ R. Violette, ed., The Words of Gilbert & George, With Portraits of the Artists from 1968 to 1997 (1997), pp. 94-95 & 305 (pictured p. 94).