Gilbert & George: London Pictures. 43683

Gilbert & George’s London Pictures, created in 2011, are their largest group of works, inspired by a collection of 3,712 newspaper posters carefully amassed and sorted by the artists over several years. In their words, ‘London is the most important part of our inspiration. It is all that surrounds us’, and the artworks articulate the magnificence and sordidness of London life. The posters’ headlines announce violence, passion, misery and greed, a veritable torrent of human existence.

Writer and novelist Michael Bracewell’s essay, written in 2011, considers how Gilbert & George came to know London by roaming the streets as Dickens did a century earlier, absorbing the city in exact proportion to the manner the city absorbed them. He depicts the London Pictures as the cumulative force and intensity of the pair’s art to date.

This catalogue features the twenty-eight London Pictures displayed at The Gilbert & George Centre in their 2024–25 exhibition, alongside a scale model of the show and exhibition views. It has been over a decade since these works were first unveiled on a global tour and many have never been shown in the UK previously.