Gilbert & George 21ST CENTURY PICTURES at the Hayward Gallery.
- Rebecca Lethbridge
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Exhibition Review
The Hayward Gallery is a well-known art gallery which is located in the Southbank Centre in central London, England. The gallery was founded on 9th July 1968, and it is situated adjacent to the National Theatre BFI Southbank repertory cinema and other Southbank Centre buildings. The Southbank Centre is London’s biggest arts centre, and it is home to both the Hayward Gallery and Royal Festival Hall.
On Friday 14th November I had the opportunity to visit the Hayward Gallery where I saw the Gilbert & George: 21ST CENTURY PICTURES exhibition. This exhibition opened on 7th October 2025 and finishes on 11th January 2026. Allowing the viewer to discover the pair’s work from the past 25 years through more than 60 large-scale vibrant art that focuses on the human experience, it also reflects on their motto ‘Art for All’. Their work often includes bold colours and single-word titles, where each piece explores societal norms and taboos, with their art often pushing the boundaries of taste and propriety. This exhibition explores multiple artworks from the start of the millennium including ‘NEW HORNY PICTURES’ (2001), ‘THE LONDON PICTURES’ (2011), ‘THE BEARD PICTURES’ (2016), and ‘THE CORPSING PICTURES’ (2022), which all explore themes around hope, sex, fear, religion, corruption and death[i]. Both Gilbert and George describe themselves as “living sculptures” as they blur the line between life and art.
‘THE LONDON PICTURES’ (2011):
‘THE LONDON PICTURES’ (2011) is their largest series of artwork, made up of 292 pictures, including ‘MURDER’ (2011). The series is made up of hundreds of newspaper posters collected by the artists over several years. The posters feature headlines from London’s street, mainly focusing on murder, crime, and sex. Gilbert and George arranged the posters into themed groups, which reflect on the spirit of London and what they describe as ‘extreme urban pictures’, incorporating references to real events and court cases such as the Damilola Taylor and Stephen Lawrence murders. This series presents artwork exploring modern urban life in all its volatility, absurdity, tragedy, and routine violence[ii].
‘THE BEARD PICTURES’ (2016):
‘THE BEARD PICTURES’ (2016) is a series of 17 pieces, including ‘SEX’ and ‘MONEY’ (2016). This series is made up of artwork that can be considered violent and eerie which ‘show a dream-like world of paranoia and destruction and madness’. Within this series Gilbert and George position themselves within the work by representing themselves through red sinister versions of themselves with shadowed eyes that look scared. This series represents a world where people have lost their sense of reason and no one tries to work things out anymore[iii].
Strengths and weaknesses:
The exhibition is visually immersive with many viewers highlighting how the huge, brightly coloured works fill the concrete gallery space and make you feel completely surrounded by art. With the work often adopting a collage like style, mixing street signs, headlines, adverts and images of bodies, streets, religion and decay, it helps to create a sharp (sometimes unsettling) view of themes like class, death, race, sex and the hidden side of urban life. However, with so many large-scale bold artworks, some viewers may find some of the work with many layers of text, photos and colour slightly overwhelming and feel like the work is more focused on being outrageous than meaningful.
Moreover, this exhibition can be considered to be provocative yet sincere. This is because despite the fact that the works can be seen as loud and sometimes confrontational, it is clear that there is a genuine interest and care behind the work, demonstrating how Gilbert and George examine their subjects and themes carefully, with some pieces having a dark, ironic beauty to them.
While visiting this exhibition I personally loved their use of technically bold colours, created using their digital editing skills to build dense, layered images that are filled with textures, distortions and overlaps, with create rich and complex pictures of city life.
Whilst the duo’s motto ‘Art for All’ may seem inclusive, can we really say that their art is inclusive as their art contain some graphic content which may make it less accessible than the slogan suggests.
Overall, this exhibition allows the viewer to think, whilst viewing art that mixes raw city atmosphere/’buzz’, theatre, social commentary and personal feeling all at once. If you enjoy exhibitions that include big bold confrontational artwork then this is the perfect exhibition for you. It offers brutal honesty about modern urban life, discomfort and moments of insight. This exhibition is the perfect opportunity to see two veteran artists who continue to provoke and question the world around them.
The exhibition is really good value with ArtFund tickets and tickets for those who are 18-30 years old costing £10 and £20 for those over 30 years old.
Photos taken by Rebecca Lethbridge
References:
[i] “Gilbert & George: 21ST CENTURY PICTURES,” n.d. https://www.newexhibitions.com/e/67210.
[ii] White Cube. “LONDON PICTURES | White Cube,” April 13, 2025. https://www.whitecube.com/gallery-exhibitions/london-pictures.
[iii] White Cube. “THE BEARD PICTURES AND THEIR FUCKOSOPHY | White Cube,” June 13, 2024. https://www.whitecube.com/gallery-exhibitions/the-beard-pictures-and-their-fuckosophy.
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