Gilbert & George

The Singing Sculpture, 1969 onward Still students when they made it, Gilbert & George covered their heads and hands in multicolored metallic powders, stood on a table and moved slowly to a recording of Flanagan and Allen's "Underneath the Arches," at times for a whole day. They called themselves living sculptures, and this is the piece that made the claim stick: the artists themselves became the object on the plinth, refusing any separation between the work and their everyday lives. It was performed at the National Jazz and Blues Festival in 1969 and at the Nigel Greenwood Gallery in 1970. Where Klein put other bodies to work, this is the opposite move, and the pair have lived the idea ever since.