Gilbert & George and the Communists

Picking up where the acclaimed Bacon in Moscow left off, Gilbert & George and the Communists sees daring art dealer James Birch take British art’s most iconic duo on a subversive trip to Beijing, Shanghai and the dying embers of the Soviet Union. 

James Birch has been a promoter of modern art for over thirty years and boasts a resume of exhibitions both throughout the UK and internationally. The first gallerist to show works by Grayson Perry and the neo-naturists, James was also a close friend of Francis Bacon, Gilbert & George, Denis Wirth-Miller and Genesis P-Orridge. Written with the journalist Michael Hodges – whose work has appeared in the Sunday Times, the Financial Times, the New Statesman and Esquire – Gilbert & George and the Communists is more than just a picaresque and deeply funny riot through art history: it is an account of a world unthinkably different to – and ever-present in - our own today.