Gilbert & George
and the Communists (paperback)
James Birch with Micheal Hodges
Picking up where the acclaimed Bacon in Moscow left off, Gilbert & George and the Communists sees daring art dealer James Birch take the most iconic duo in British art through the dying embers of the Soviet Union, and into a China reinventing itself post- Tiananmen Square as a global superpower.
PAPERBACK PUBLISHED ON: 23/04/2026
£12.99
Praise for Gilbert & George and the Communists
'A winning combination of recent-ish global history, alcohol fuelled bad behaviour and the struggle to bring art to the masses. Very
good and very funny.’ Jarvis Cocker
‘An even more gripping follow up to Bacon in Moscow’. The Spectator
About the authors
James Birch has been a promoter of modern art exhibitions both in the UK and overseas for over thirty years. He opened his first gallery, James Birch Art, in 1983, which specialised particularly in showing the work of Surrealists and Young British Artists. His second gallery, Birch & Conran Fine Art, opened in 1987 in London’s Soho, and a decade later he opened the A22 Gallery, in Clerkenwell, London. James has exhibited artists including Grayson Perry, Francis Bacon, Gilbert & George, Genesis P Orridge and Austin Osman Spare and Denis Wirth-Miller in galleries all over the world.
Michael Hodges has reported extensively from Russia and the Middle East. He has written for many newspapers and magazines including The Sunday Times, the Financial Times, Time Out, New Statesman and Esquire. He is the author of AK47: THE STORY OF THE PEOPLE’S GUN. He is currently editor-at-large of the Radio Times and he lives in London with his family.