CELEBRATING A YEAR OF THE GILBERT & GEORGE CENTRE - 'LONDON PICTURES' OPEN TO THE PUBLIC FROM 12 APRIL

CELEBRATING A YEAR OF THE GILBERT & GEORGE CENTRE

'LONDON PICTURES'
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC FROM 12 APRIL

- The 'LONDON PICTURES' will be exhibited at The Gilbert & George Centre from 12 April for the duration of 2024

- Presented to coincide with the first anniversary of The Gilbert & George Centre in the UK's capital, the 'LONDON PICTURES' comprise a directory of quotidian urban human behaviour and a moral portrait of our times

- The largest group of pictures created by Gilbert & George, the 'LONDON PICTURES' is comprised of 292 pictures whose subject matter is taken from 3,712 newspaper posters, stolen by the artists over a number of of years

- The entire group of 'LONDON PICTURES' were last on view globally in Athens, Berlin, Brussels, London, Naples, Hong Kong, New York, Paris and Salzburg in 2012. The Gilbert & George Centre will present 28 pictures - many of which have not been seen in the UK previously

"London is the most important part of our inspiration. It is all that surrounds us. And so we have been able to include all this remarkable surface of thoughts and feeling that we find in these posters…" - Gilbert & George

Celebrating a year of The Gilbert & George Centre in London, the second exhibition to take place will present 28 'LONDON PICTURES'. The largest group of pictures created by Gilbert & George, the 'LONDON PICTURES' offers both a directory of urban human behaviour and a moral portrait of our times. Brutal and declamatory, these brooding and disquieting pictures have been created from the sorting and classification by subject of 3,712 newspaper posters, stolen by Gilbert & George over a number of years. In their lucidity, no less than their insight into the daily realities of metropolitan life, the 'LONDON PICTURES are Dickensian in scope and ultra-modern in sensibility.

More than a decade since they were first unveiled on a global tour, viewing the 'LONDON PICTURES' in 2024 will prompt visitors to consider how society has changed and what has remained central to our shared experience.

"From the actuality of these news placards, brutal, blunt, absurd, there resonates a vision of the city as Gilbert & George have known and traversed it, drawing from its energy, dreams and trauma as though from a palate of human feeling, recognised and employed since the beginnings of their art.

The 'LONDON PICTURES' derive a great part of their impact and intensity from the directness and unchanged immediacy of the newspaper posters within all but one panel of each picture. In each remaining panel can be found a different image of HM Queen Elizabeth II, taken from coins, her countenance and profile changing with age, dented and worn through the usage of currency. The words 'IT'S WRITTEN ALL OVER THEM', beneath the legend 'A LONDON PICTURE', propose that these newspaper placards cannot help but reveal what society has become.

The 'LONDON PICTURES' seem to comprise a great visual novel, revealing without judgement the ceaseless relay of urban drama, in all its gradations of hope and suffering."

Michael Bracewell, 2012

The 'LONDON PICTURES' will be open to the public from 12 April for the duration of 2024.

IMAGE DOWNLOAD
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yekWbyqpEupFtceCSPaN...

NOTES TO EDITORS
Press Preview: The Gilbert & George Centre
Location: 5a Heneage Street, London E1 5LJ
Date: 10 April 2024
Time: 9am-12pm [Photo Call: 9-10am]
The artists will be present and available for interview

The Gilbert & George Centre
The Gilbert & George Centre, registered charity number 1174981, is located on Heneage Street, just off Brick Lane in the heart of London's East End. Founded in 2017 by Gilbert & George to create a permanent exhibition space for the artist's legacy and intended to enrich London's cultural offering, the Centre is committed to being accessible to everyone in the community. In keeping with Gilbert & George's ethos 'Art for All', admission to the Centre is free but donations from visitors and interested parties will always be gratefully accepted and will always be applied to the running and upkeep of the Centre. The Gilbert & George Centre is open to the public from Wednesday to Sunday 11am-6pm.

gilbertandgeorgecentre.org
@gilbertandgeorgecentre

Gilbert & George
The inspiration and subject of the art of Gilbert & George is modern life, frequently addressing themes from social issues and taboos to artistic conventions. Gilbert & George take their places in the visionary landscape of their art both as participants and witnesses. The vision of Gilbert & George is committed to raw realism, but it is also deeply romantic - finding heightened or disturbed emotion in ordinary things. In every picture or 'Living Sculpture', Gilbert & George convey images of the modern world with great intensity and contradiction. This precisely balanced paradox encourages the viewer to question life and art within themselves, and others.

PRESS CONTACT
The Gilbert & George Centre: Sara Macdonald|saramairi@hotmail.com|+44 (0)7900 566 918