GILBERT & GEORGE

Early Years

Gilbert & George met in 1967 while studying sculpture at Saint Martin’s School of Art, London. Gilbert Prousch was born in the Dolomites in northern Italy, and studied at the Wolkenstein School of Art and subsequently the Hallein School of Art and Design in Austria. George Passmore, born in Plymouth, studied at Dartington Hall School and Oxford Art School before moving to London.

The pair quickly formed a creative and personal partnership that would redefine the role of the artist in contemporary art. Rejecting traditional sculpture, they declared themselves “living sculptures”, performing as a unified artistic entity in both life and practice. They have lived and worked together in East London for over five decades, making the city’s shifting landscape and socio-political dynamics central to their art.

Artworks

Gilbert & George’s artworks are known for their confrontational aesthetics, symmetry, and subversive use of photographic collage to explore contemporary life in all its contradictions—social, sexual, moral, and political.

The Singing Sculpture

The Singing Sculpture (1969) was the first artwork that declared Gilbert & George themselves as art. Standing motionless on a table for hours, heads coated in metallic paint, the pair mimed along to Flanagan and Allen’s “Underneath the Arches.” It was both absurd and captivating, setting the tone for their fusion of performance, identity and sculpture. The piece challenged conventional ideas of art objects, turning the artists into a spectacle. Presented in streets, galleries and biennales, it marked the beginning of their “living sculpture” identity and foreshadowed their lifelong commitment to making art inseparable from everyday life and self-presentation.

Dirty Words and Street Scenes

The Dirty Words Pictures (1977) emerged during a period of social unrest in Britain. Comprising 26 large-scale black-and-white photo panels, these works juxtaposed graffiti from East London—featuring slurs, expletives and political statements—with static images of Gilbert & George in suits. The artists appear impassive among scenes of disorder: smashed windows, littered pavements and sexually explicit language. The stark contrast between their composed demeanour and the raw street language emphasises themes of alienation, class division and censorship. These early photo works introduced a critical and ironic perspective on British society, exposing tensions between authority and rebellion in the urban landscape.

Postcard Aesthetics to Digital Imagery

By the 1990s, Gilbert & George had shifted into full-colour, digitally enhanced artworks that intensified the theatricality of their compositions. Works like the Naked Shit Pictures (1995) and Sonofagod Pictures (2005) shocked with scatological, religious and sexual imagery layered into symmetrical grids. Their appearances multiplied across each panel—sometimes nude, masked or grotesque—within montaged scenes of decay and violence. The use of digital technology allowed them to amplify their aesthetic of controlled chaos. These monumental works addressed taboos head-on, critiquing moral hypocrisy, religious dogma and the surveillance state. Visually aggressive yet meticulously structured, they brought classical composition into dialogue with urban extremity.

The Paradisical Pictures and The Beard Pictures

In The Paradisical Pictures (2006) and The Beard Pictures (2017), Gilbert & George continued to evolve their visual language while maintaining their commitment to addressing societal contradictions. The Paradisical Pictures presented dreamlike, often garish environments filled with surreal floral motifs and kaleidoscopic colours, inviting viewers into a corrupted Eden where beauty and danger coexist. The Beard Pictures, by contrast, featured the artists buried in vivid backdrops, their faces obscured by digitally manipulated beards—symbols of identity, disguise, and religious iconography. These works extended their legacy of turning contemporary issues such as terrorism, extremism, and nationalism into visceral yet conceptually dense art.

Awards and Accolades

• Elected as Royal Academicians by the Royal Academy of Arts (2017) [Resigned in 2020]
• Represented the UK at the Venice Biennale (2005)
• Turner Prize (1986)
• Regione Lazio Award (1981)

Exhibitions

Gilbert & George have been the subject of both solo and group exhibitions at important institutions. A selection of important exhibitions are provided below.

Solo Exhibitions

• Gilbert & George: The Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland Exhibition 2022, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Auckland (2022)
• Gilbert & George: The Great Exhibition (1971–2016), Luma Westbau and Kunsthalle Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland; Reykjavík Art Museum, Reykjavík, Iceland (2020)
• Gilbert & George: There Were Two Young Men, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2019)
• Gilbert & George: The Great Exhibition (1971–2016), Luma Arles, Arles (2018)
• Gilbert & George: The Early Years, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2015)
• Notations: Gilbert & George, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia (2008)

Group Exhibitions

• The World Exists to Be Put on a Postcard: Artists’ Postcards from 1960 to Now, British Museum, London (2019)
• Somewhat Abstract: Selection from the Arts Council Collection, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham (2014)
• Glam! The Performance of Style, Tate, Liverpool, UK; Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Frankfurt (2013)
• Staging Action: Performance in Photography since 1960, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2011)
• Less is More, Haus der Kunst, Munich (2010)

Website and Instagram

Gilbert & George’s website can be found here, and their Instagram here.

Critical Reception

Gilbert & George’s work has been widely discussed in leading art publications including ArtReview, The Critic, and The Guardian. In conversation with Ocula Magazine in 2017, Gilbert said: ‘That’s why people go by the millions to museums. They’re all searching for themselves. They’re trying to heal themselves, full of anxieties. Or because life is so boring. But it is a healing process, art.’

Gilbert & George FAQs

Ocula | 2025