About Gilbert & George

"Gilbert & George consider themselves warriors "fighting for a total expression." They want to invoke all our experiences, intellectual and physical, even the most dramatic, the most banal, the most shunned by social custom. Their daily struggle for artistic creative action becomes a metaphor of the unceasing desperate activity of man." – Mario Codognato

Gilbert & George are a British artist duo who have been working together since the late 1960s. Gilbert Proesch and George Passmore met while studying at St. Martin's School of Art in London and have since become known for their provocative and controversial artworks that often challenge societal norms and conventions.

One of their most well-known artworks is titled The Singing Sculpture. Created in 1969, the performance piece features Gilbert & George dressed in suits, standing on a table, and singing the hymn "Underneath the Arches" while moving their arms and legs in a robotic manner. The artwork challenges traditional notions of sculpture and performance, blurring the boundaries between the two.

Another notable body of work by Gilbert & George is their "Drinking Pieces" series. Created in the early 1970s, the series consists of large-scale photographs of the artists holding alcoholic drinks and making provocative gestures. The images are meant to challenge societal taboos around alcohol and to critique the conservative attitudes of British society at the time.

Gilbert & George are also known for their brightly colored and highly detailed "Pictures" series, which features a wide range of images and symbols from everyday life. The photo series has been described as a kind of visual diary, reflecting the artists' experiences and observations of contemporary culture.

Auction record: £1.9m, Christie's, London, 2008

Notable exhibitions

Gilbert & George represented the United Kingdom at the Venice Biennale in 2005, presenting Ginkgo Pictures at the British Pavilion, a pivotal moment in their international reception. In 2007, Tate Modern organized a major retrospective of their artworks, later touring to institutions including Haus der Kunst in Munich, Castello di Rivoli in Turin, the de Young Museum in San Francisco, and the Brooklyn Museum, consolidating their position within the postwar canon.

This institutional recognition continued with The Great Exhibition (1971–2016), a comprehensive survey shown at venues such as Moderna Museet, the Astrup Fearnley Museum in Oslo, and Kunsthalle Zürich between 2019 and 2020. More recently, their ongoing London Pictures cycle and subsequent bodies of work were presented at The Gilbert & George Centre and the Hayward Gallery in 2024 and 2025, reaffirming their sustained engagement with public institutions and their continued relevance within contemporary art discourse.