Gilbert & George, Damned Buddleia, 1980. photo Philips de Pury & Cie

16 black and white photographs in the artists' frames.  241 x 201 cm (95 × 79 in).  Signed, titled and dated 'Damned Buddleia Gilbert and George 1980' lower right. ESTIMATE £150,000-200,000

PROVENANCE  Massimo Martino Fine Arts + Projects, Lugano

LITERATURE  Schirmer, Mosel, eds., Gilbert & George, The Complete Pictures 1971 – 1985, 1986, p. 133 (illustrated); R. Fuchs, ed., Gilbert & George: The Complete Pictures 1971 – 2005, Volume 1 1971 – 1988, London, 2007, p. 350 (illustrated)

NOTES British duo Gilbert and George, while celebrated in the popular media as an eccentric artistic double act, have produced a serious and important body of work which blurs the boundaries between art and life. The pair began working together in 1968 and have since championed the egalitarian ideal of ‘Art for All’. By addressing taboo subjects and questioning social conventions, they often expose the more hidden, shadowed aspects of life – a tendency well-exemplified by Damned Buddleia. The buddleia plant is portrayed in stark contrasts of black and white within Gilbert and George’s trademark grid format. The soft and fleshy flower forms deliver a decidedly erotic charge, but rather than suggesting a potent display of nature in bloom, a feeling of vulnerability pervades the work – the limp bouquet will, no doubt, wither in time, becoming a symbol of moral and sexual damnation. Thus the work conveys, in essence, the universal feelings of hope and fear associated with modern society.

Philips de Pury & Cie. Evening Sale Contempory Art. 29 june 2010. London www.phillipsdepury.com