Gilbert & George star on the front page of The Evening Standard in a special 1 in 4 exclusive covers by Chris Levine.

Everybody say Frieze…

To commemorate the world-famous art fair returning to London, light artist Chris Levine has created a new series for The Standard featuring some of Britain’s best living creatives – including Gilbert & George.

Here, he talks how about his portrait of the Queen went global, kicking bad habits and shooting our art greats – or pick up a copy on newsstands today (Thursday 10 October 2024) 🗞️

By popular demand, we are pleased to announce the release of the Centre’s first jigsaw puzzle.

Available exclusively from the Centre, and in limited quantity, the puzzle depicts Gilbert & George’s ‘FINDING GOD’ picture from their ‘1982 PICTURES’ group.

During the 1980s, Gilbert & George saturated their pictures with colour. In their own words, “How we actually coloured a picture was something we had to find out. At first, we only knew how to colour an individual panel. We only knew how to colour this one red, and this one, and leave these two not coloured. Then we started to discover with certain colours that we could colour black line, and the division between coloured and not coloured would be lost in the middle of the black line”.

The 1000-piece puzzle is available to purchase now exclusively from The Gilbert & George Centre and via our online shop. Shop here.

£25 each

Puzzle size: 48 x 69 cm
Box size: 33 x 20.5 x 5.5 cm

Suitable for age 3+

Made in the UK
Worldwide shipping available

 


Installation shot of ‘The Complete Pictures 1971-1985’ by Gilbert & George at Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels in 1986.

FINDING GOD (1982)

‘FINDING GOD’ was part of Gilbert & George’s touring exhibition ‘The Complete Pictures 1971-1985’ which was shown in Bordeaux, Basel, Brussels (depicted in the above image), Madrid, Munich, and at The Hayward Gallery, London from 1986 to 1987.

The exhibit spanned works by Gilbert & George’s from their first series ‘NATURE PIECES’ (1971) of London parks in black and white up until the bright and multi-coloured ‘NEW MORAL WORKS’ of 1985.

Just Announced! Gilbert & George will present their 21ST CENTURY PICTURES at the Hayward Gallery, London, opening 7 Oct 2025 – on view until 4 Jan 2026. 

The exhibition will showcase Gilbert & George’s artistic journey from the past 25 years, with vibrant, large-scale images that centre the human experience and reflect their motto, ‘Art for All’, highlighting new pictures created since the start of the millennium.

With bold, single-word titles, each piece delves into societal norms and taboos, spanning the mundane and the illicit. Their art challenges boundaries of taste and propriety.

21ST CENTURY PICTURES features key series including NEW HORNY PICTURES (2001), THE LONDON PICTURES (2011), THE BEARD PICTURES (2016), and THE CORPSING PICTURES (2022), exploring themes of hope, fear, sex, religion, corruption and death.

To find out more visit Southbank Centre here and to stay up to date with Gilbert & George, please sign up to the Centre’s newsletter here.

Image: ‘HA-HA’ (190 x 226 cm) – from Gilbert & George’s 2022 ‘THE CORPSING PICTURES’. 

Wishing our dear Gilbert a very happy birthday! 🎈

Image: Portrait of Gilbert by Rankin part of the 1990 shoot with Gilbert & George in their home and studio courtyard.

Photographer: @rankinarchive
©Rankin 

We are pleased to announce during Open House Festival 2024, the Centre will host Architect-led tours on Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 September, 11am – 12.30pm.

The architectural tours – led by SIRS Architects Co-Founder Manuel Irsara – will visit the building’s spaces and provide visitors with insights into the project’s history and its making.Tours will be free but booking is essential due to limited capacity. Book your tickets here.

SIRS Architects converted a former industrial building in London’s East End into Gilbert & George’s art foundation, breathing new life into the historic fabric of the area and seeking to immerse visitors in the unique realm of Gilbert & George through a sequence of spaces and built details.

The Centre will also be open to the public 11am – 6pm, during our Open House Festival 2024 drop in days: Saturday 14 & Sunday 15 September, and Wednesday 18 to Sunday 22 September. Visit Open House Festival for full details.

Further project information

The Gilbert and George Centre can be found on 18th century Heneage Street, situated in the Brick Lane and Fournier Street Conservation Area. Upon arrival, visitors are greeted by a hand-forged wrought iron gate, before entering through a secluded cobbled courtyard, featuring a film room that introduces the “World of Gilbert & George. A dimly lit reception area leads to three contemporary exhibition spaces of different scale and feel providing a discrete setting for the artists’ large-scale creations.

The Centre has been thoughtfully converted from a 1820’s former brewery building, most recently in residential use. By combining preserved, restored and contemporary elements, the project honours the building’s industrial past aligning with the artists’ vision of heritage, architectural spaces and art display.

The brief required a challenging approach to create sufficient space for the Centre’s transformation on a restricted site. A new basement level was constructed under the building’s pre-existing footprint and a new above-ground side extension was added.

Spitalfields has been Gilbert & George’s home and subject since the mid 1960s. The Centre is an extension of the artist’s “Art for All” ethos and aims to become a leading cultural institution – committed to free access for all members of the community – as well as providing a permanent home for an unrivalled artistic legacy by welcoming visitors from across the globe.

After a successful first year with many led-tours, we have decided to offer a highlight tour every Friday at 11.15am for any visitors who wish to participate – the tour is capped at 20 people and is available on ‘first-come, first-served’ basis.

Our first tour will be on Friday 7 June, led by a member of our team.

G&G’s art is known to spark conversation and we love welcoming groups of visitors; students, tourists, art lovers, and many others who like to engage in discussion about G&G’s art and the artworks on display.

In our first year of opening, we have had the pleasure to welcome many groups and have facilitated tours of the Centre and our inaugural exhibition THE PARADISICAL PICTURES. We’ve also offered in-depth architectural tours led by the Centre’s architect, Manuel Irsara (Co-Founder of @sirs_architects) on multiple occasions, including Open House Festival, Frieze, as well as on-request from visitors with a strong interest in architecture.

Highlight Centre tours will last around 45 minutes and have more of a conversational tone, encouraging groups to participate, ask questions, and share their own reflections.

Faithful to our mission of ART FOR ALL, these tours are free of charge.

If you’re a group-leader and would like to explore the exhibition in more depth, we regularly offer tours on request. For educational groups these tours remain free of charge, however for any other large groups we kindly ask you to consider showing us support through a donation.

Here’s some feedback from previous tour participants:

“The exhibition made me think more about the ways artists in general put themselves into their work”

“I really enjoyed the art pieces which are vibrant and thought provoking”

“I was also impressed by the informative and personable tour guide who aptly answered the questions put to them”

Photography © Sam Harris.

NAKED BODY (1991), from the ‘NEW DEMOCRATIC PICTURES’ by Gilbert & George.

Currently on view at the V&A Museum in the exhibition Fragile Beauty: Photographs from the Sir Elton John and David Furnish Collection.

The exhibition celebrates Sir Elton John and David Furnish’s passion for photography and reflects their personal taste and unique eye as collectors. Across eight thematic sections, Fragile Beauty explores themes such as fashion, reportage, celebrity, the male body, and American photography.

“Since we first loaned a selection of Horst photographs to the V&A in 2014, our relationship with the museum has grown significantly. Fragile Beauty takes our collaboration to really exciting new heights, showcasing some of the most beloved photographers and iconic images from within our collection. Working alongside the V&A again has been a truly memorable experience, and we look forward to sharing this exhibition with the public.”
– Sir Elton John and David Furnish

On view until 5 January 2025. For more information, visit V&A’s website here.

50 years after creating ‘G & G’ from the ‘DRINKING PIECES – MODERN RUBBISH’ pictures in 1973, Gilbert & George present a new suite of Inkwashes ‘G AND G’.

Each Inkwash in this suite has been individually hand-painted by Gilbert & George, with each featuring distinctive, lively and unique brushwork, and colourful lettering on 400 gsm watercolour paper. Numbered and signed by Gilbert & George, the two formats (horizontal and vertical) come in an edition of 50.

Available to purchase from the Centre and via our online store – with worldwide shipping available. All proceeds benefit the Centre ensuring its door remains open to everyone with no ticket or entry fee, furthering Gilbert & George’s vision of an ‘Art
For All’.

£2,000 each (sold unframed)

Horizontal format size: 70cm H x 100cm W
Vertical format size: 100cm H x 70cm W

Join us, in the presence of Gilbert & George, for the launch of Dark Shadow (2024) at The Gilbert & George Centre on Thursday 9 May from 6 to 8pm.

➡️ Please reserve your spot here

Gilbert & George created Dark Shadow in 1974 as a ‘living sculpture book’, the ‘result of our past three years of earnest daily thoughts, shadows, deeds, cares and pleasures.’ Hurtwood’s limited new edition (of 2,000), marks its fiftieth anniversary.

Featuring original text and artwork by Gilbert & George, the publication offers an unparalleled perspective on the early career of one of the twentieth century’s most significant artists. Like their art, Gilbert & George’s writing is irreverent, rebellious, often funny and deeply poetic. The book includes a letter to their readers and photographs by the artists of themselves, their home in East London and their pictures.

Dark Shadow is structured in eight chapters, which elaborate on the inspirations behind Gilbert & George’s work, such as London life and British culture, including, of course, Gordon’s Gin. As is emblazoned on the cover, Dark Shadow is a continuation of their lifelong agenda ‘Art for All’, and each book is a piece of art in itself, uniquely bound in the UK with hand-marbled cloth, made under the guidance of Gilbert & George.

You can purchase your copy at the event for a special, discounted price of £125.

📍The Gilbert & George Centre, 5a Heneage St, London E1 5LJ 📍

Photography by Hurtwood

 

 

Gilbert & George – Pink Elephants on show at the Herbert Foundation – Loods, Belgium, now until the 28th July 2024.

Gilbert and George have been working as two people but one artist since the early 1960s. For Gilbert & George there is no distinction between the artist and the artwork. “The life of Gilbert & George is art.” Their versatile oeuvre is both current and provocative and is equally romantic and humorous. Although they always place themselves and their lives at the centre of their art, they transcend the personal and their work touches upon universal themes such as identity, sexuality, religion, and politics. The presentation Gilbert & George – Pink Elephants emphasises Gilbert & George’s early work and shows the radical position they took from the outset.

The exhibition is part of a series of focus presentations where works and documents form the basis to elaborate further on the multifaceted oeuvres of the artists in the collection of Annick and Anton Herbert.

Text by Herbert Foundation

Works in the exhibition include Gilbert & George’s 1974 ‘INCA PISCO’ and three of their iconic ‘DIRTY WORDS PICTURES’ from 1977.

To find out more about Pink Elephants visit Herbert Foundation here.

Images: Exhibition views of ‘Gilbert & George – Pink Elephants’ at Herbert Foundation – Loods. Photograph by Kristien Daem.

We would like to extend a thank you to everyone for their support during our inaugural year. Since opening our doors and our inaugural exhibition ‘THE PARADISICAL PICTURES’ in April, we’ve had the pleasure of welcoming almost 40,000 visitors and look forward to welcoming many more in 2024!

The Centre will be closing on Friday 22nd December for the festive period and will reopen Wednesday 3rd January 2024. From Wednesday 3rd January, we are pleased to announce our extended opening days will be Wednesday to Sunday, 11AM – 6PM.