Gilbert & George

Book accompanying a landmark exhibition from the pioneering London-based artists. Discover the duo's pictures from the past 25 years, with vibrant, large-scale images that centre the human experience and reflect their motto, 'Art for All'.

Gilbert & George are some of the most iconic artists to have ever lived, with their monumental commitment to being 'living sculptures' and their motto of 'art for all' continuing without fail over the last five decades. Their artistic practice spans charcoal sketches to sculptural interventions; however, it is their expansive, vividly coloured pictures that have become globally renowned both inside and outside the contemporary art landscape. Characterised by concise, often single-word titles emblazoned in bold capital letters, each picture becomes a stage for the exploration of societal norms and cultural taboos. From the mundane to the illicit, Gilbert & George's practice encompasses the full spectrum of human existence, transcending traditional boundaries of taste and propriety.

21st Century Pictures will showcase pictures across key series made since 2000, such as NEW HORNY PICTURES (2001), THE LONDON PICTURES (2011), THE BEARD PICTURES (2016) and their more recent CORPSING PICTURES (2022). Through these works, audiences are invited to explore contemporary society through the complexities of hope, fear, sex, religion, corruption, violence, patriotism, addiction, ghosts, death and more.

This book chronicles those works in full colour and includes an introduction by Rachel Thomas, an in-depth essay by Michael Bracewell and a new interview with the artists by Hans Ulrich Obrist. A chronology of their practice completes this in-depth volume.

About the Author

Michael Bracewell is a writer and novelist. A selection of his writings on art and culture, The Space Between, was published in 2022.

Rachel Thomas is Roden Chief Curator at London's Hayward Gallery.

Hans Ulrich Obrist is Co-Director of the Serpentine Galleries, London. He is the author of numerous books on art and artists, and several volumes of interviews including Lives of the Artists, Lives of the Architects (2016).