Gilbert & George say ‘Don’t Catch It!’ in new coronavirus poster

Forget happy-clappy rainbows and slogans of hope and optimism! With nearly a month in quarantine on the clock, the British artists Gilbert & George are offering a rather bleaker downloadable offering for the shuttered masses to display in their windows. Gilbert & George say: Don't Catch it! declares one poster, Gilbert & George say: Don’t Get it! shouts another. The besuited duo’s blunt take on the Covid-19 crisis is available for free download from The Online Art Show, set up by the artist Sam Harris as an extension of his print zine Pure Filth, which features 80 artists including Jake and Dinos Chapman and Noel Fielding. As the weeks indoors begin to take their toll, and with no certain end in sight, maybe G&G’s shouty admonishment to keep coronavirus at bay is perhaps a more accurate expression of how we are all feeling. Though I’m not sure that sharing G&G’s statements in our windows will do much to lift the general mood.