Gilbert and George: 21ST CENTURY PICTURES
Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX
7 October 2025 – 4 January 2026
Gilbert and George aim to ‘bring out the bigot from inside the liberal and conversely bring out the liberal from inside the bigot’. 21st Century Pictures includes new work and numerous examples of their art from the past twenty five years. The graphics are familiar, as is the vocabulary within the integral text; Gilbert and George inhabit each image and the scale is overwhelming. Endless repetitious squares and bold clashing digital colours give the galleries a cathedral like feel.
This is a celebration of Gilbert and George. There are no labels and little explanation, the works speak for themselves. Imagery is fed from their home ground, London’s East End: the objects and detritus of an alive and busy urban neighbourhood. In AGES, 2001, Gilbert and George collected escort advertisements, newspapers and flyers and sorted them by age. A telephone box, post box and bus feature in LIFE AFTER DEATH PROVED, 2014. Each glossy piece is definitively Gilbert and George often imbued with a certain bleakness and sadness. They address many issues, but even though they are omnipresent, I‘m not sure they ever clearly reveal themselves.
BOMB (TRIPTYCH), 2006.
SEX MONEY RACE RELIGION – 2. MONEY, 2016.
LIFE AFTER DEATH PROVED, 2014.
MURDER, 2011.
AGES, 2001.
JACK FREAK PICTURES – IN THE MIND OF THE BEHOLDER, 2008.
