Gilbert & George, 21st Century Pictures, Hayward Gallery review - brash, bright and not so beautiful

There was a time when Gilbert & George made provocative pictures that probed the body politic for sore points that others preferred to ignore. Trawling the streets of East London, where they’ve lived since the 1960s, the artist duo chronicled the poverty and squalor of their neighbourhood in large photographic panels that feature the angry, the debased and the destitute.

Scrawled on decaying walls, the racist, sexist and homophobic slogans they recorded on their wanderings, create an atmosphere of dread – of impending and actual violence. The streets were mean and, especially as gay men, they had to mind their backs.

The Hayward Gallery show focuses on the works they’ve made since 2000, though. Twenty Eight Streets 2003, is a list of street names in E1 printed white on black in alphabetical order. They surround two mysterious figures who stand swathed in white shrouds; it’s as though they (the artists) were saying goodbye to the area that had absorbed their time and attention for over four decades but was now disappearing before their eyes.

Since then, Shoreditch has been gentrified beyond recognition and the couple have widened their purview. Dressed in immaculate suits, they still act as witnesses to London life, but their images now address issues that seem more general and less personal. And it makes them feel hollowed out.

Funky 2020 shows Gilbert & George keeling over from drinking too much fizz. Despite wearing immaculate blue and pink suits and well polished shoes, they are quite convincing as drunkards. The piece made me nostalgic for the Drinking Sculptures they made in 1974 – a series of black and white photos of the artists downing Gordon’s gin – which supposedly gave us a glimpse of their lifestyle, despite being highly staged.

The work has long since shifted from monochrome to colour – originally hand tinted, now digitally manipulated – but the rainbow hues they are now able to employ don’t bring a sense of wellbeing. In fact, they feel like a ploy, a way of lulling you into a false sense of security, because there’s nothing beautiful about the world of Gilbert & George.

There’s no love, for instance, just sex. Ages 2001 shows the artists presiding over medallions that resemble plaques commemorating the dead. The texts come from rent boy and escort ads. Othello is a hunky 26-year-old who offers “Hot versatile service in/out”, while gym-trained Troy is “very well-equipped”. Paul has a “very cute behind” and offers a “discrete, versatile service” while an anonymous boy-next-door promises “unhurried time”. Meanwhile, featuring Gilbert & George as spooky voyeurs (their faces doubled into weird, spherical masks) School Playground 2008 suggests that the couple hang around school gates to ogle the talent.Culled from the Evening Standard archive, newspaper headlines put the fear of God into readers by blaring out warnings of sex scandals, murders and bomb blasts. It’s enough to drive anyone to religion in search of solace but, although crucifixes abound here, they are treated like ghoulish trinkets – robbed of any significant meaning or symbolism.

Elsewhere, there’s a lot of open-mouthed posturing, as though to equate shouting with wisdom. The goal, they say, is to “bring out the bigot from inside the liberal and conversely to bring out the liberal from inside the bigot”. But if Gilbert & George are proselytizing, their message gets smothered by sensory overload until one feels bludgeoned by the visual hubbub.

Over time, the pictures have got larger and the overlays more complex. With 25 years worth of work brought together in one place, the exhibition feels like an explosion of hot air – loud, vacuous and unedifying.

• Gilbert & George, 21st Century Pictures at the Hayward Gallery until 11 January 2026
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