GILBERT & GEORGE
London Pictures

23 March – 30 May 2012
Opening: 22 March from 3 – 6 p.m.
The artist will be present.

ARNDT Berlin is proud to present its inaugural exhibition of 'LONDON PICTURES' by Gilbert & George. This monumental body of 292 pictures is the largest series yet created by the acclaimed British artists. 19 pictures will be shown in Berlin.

For five decades, to international acclaim, Gilbert & George have been making art that is visionary, shocking, relentless, moral and richly atmospheric.

In these new ‘LONDON PICTURES’ (2011) Gilbert & George present an epic survey of modern urban life in all its volatility, tragedy, absurdity and routine violence. Brutal and declamatory, these brooding and disquieting pictures have been created from the sorting and classification by subject of nearly 4000 newspaper headline posters, stolen by the artists 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.

Drawing directly on the quotidian life of a vast city, the ‘LONDON PICTURES’ allow contemporary society to recount itself in its own language. Within the townscape of this moral audit, Gilbert & George appear to pass like ghosts and seers, alternately watchful and distracted, as though their spirits were haunting the very streets and buildings that these pictures describe. The ‘LONDON PICTURES’ seem to comprise a great visual novel, revealing without judgment the ceaseless relay of urban drama, in all its gradations of hope and suffering.
Michael Bracewell, 2012


Gilbert was born in the Dolomites, Italy in 1943; George was born in Devon in 1942 and both live and work in London. Together they have participated in many important group and solo exhibitions including 51st International Venice Biennale (2005), Turner Prize (1984) and Carnegie International (1985). They have had extensive solo exhibitions, including Whitechapel Gallery (1971-1972), National Gallery, Beijing (1993), Shanghai Art Museum (1993), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1995-1996), Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (1998), Serpentine Gallery, London (2002), Kunsthaus Bregenz (2002), Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover (2004-2005), Tate Modern, London, Haus der Kunst, Munich (both 2007), Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, Philadelphia Museum of Art (both 2008), ‘Jack Freak Pictures’, CAC Malaga, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels (all 2010), Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Kunstmuseum Linz (both 2011) and Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art, Gdansk (2011-2012).

A catalogue documenting all 292 of the ‘LONDON PICTURES’ with an essay by Michael Bracewell will accompany the exhibition.

Gilbert & George will attend the press preview and the opening of the exhibition.

For further information, please contact:
Lisa Polten
0049 30 206 138 70
lisa at arndtberlin dot com

 

 

Gilbert & George, Installationview Gilbert & George: LONDON Pictures at ARNDT 2012 Gilbert & George, Installationview Gilbert & George: LONDON Pictures at ARNDT 2012 Gilbert & George, Installationview Gilbert & George: LONDON Pictures at ARNDT 2012 Gilbert & George, Installationview Gilbert & George: LONDON Pictures at ARNDT 2012 Gilbert & George, Installationview Gilbert & George: LONDON Pictures at ARNDT 2012 Gilbert & George, Installationview Gilbert & George: LONDON Pictures at ARNDT 2012 Gilbert & George, Installationview Gilbert & George: LONDON Pictures at ARNDT 2012 Gilbert & George, Installationview Gilbert & George: LONDON Pictures at ARNDT 2012 Gilbert & George, Installationview Gilbert & George: LONDON Pictures at ARNDT 2012 Gilbert & George, Installationview Gilbert & George: LONDON Pictures at ARNDT 2012 Gilbert & George, Installationview Gilbert & George: LONDON Pictures at ARNDT 2012 Gilbert & George, Installationview Gilbert & George: LONDON Pictures at ARNDT 2012 Gilbert & George, Installationview Gilbert & George: LONDON Pictures at ARNDT 2012 Gilbert & George, Installationview Gilbert & George: LONDON Pictures at ARNDT 2012 Gilbert & George, Installationview Gilbert & George: LONDON Pictures at ARNDT 2012 Gilbert & George, Installationview Gilbert & George: LONDON Pictures at ARNDT 2012 Gilbert & George, ARMED, from: LONDON PICTURES, 2011, 9 panels , 226 x 190 cm | 88.98 x 74.8 in, # GILB0122 Gilbert & George, ARMED, from: LONDON PICTURES, 2011, 9 panels , 226 x 190 cm | 88.98 x 74.8 in, # GILB0122 Gilbert & George, ARREST STRAIGHT, from: LONDON PICTURES, 2011, 6 panels, 151 x 190 cm | 59.45 x 74.8 in, # GILB0123 Gilbert & George, ARREST STRAIGHT, from: LONDON PICTURES, 2011, 6 panels, 151 x 190 cm | 59.45 x 74.8 in, # GILB0123 Gilbert & George, BOMB, from: London Pictures, 2011, 16 panels, 302 x 254 cm | 118.9 x 100 in, # GILB0124 Gilbert & George, BOMB, from: London Pictures, 2011, 16 panels, 302 x 254 cm | 118.9 x 100 in, # GILB0124 Gilbert & George, DEAD STRAIGHT, from: London Pictures, 2011, 24 panels, 302 x 381 cm | 118.9 x 150 in, # GILB0125 Gilbert & George, DEAD STRAIGHT, from: London Pictures, 2011, 24 panels, 302 x 381 cm | 118.9 x 150 in, # GILB0125 Gilbert & George, DEATH CRASH, From: London Pictures, 2011, 6 panels, 151 x 190 cm | 59.45 x 74.8 in, # GILB0126 Gilbert & George, DEATH CRASH, From: London Pictures, 2011, 6 panels, 151 x 190 cm | 59.45 x 74.8 in, # GILB0126 Gilbert & George, DRIVER, From: London Pictures, 2011, 16 panels, 302 x 254 cm | 118.9 x 100 in, # GILB0127 Gilbert & George, DRIVER, From: London Pictures, 2011, 16 panels, 302 x 254 cm | 118.9 x 100 in, # GILB0127 Gilbert & George, GANGS STRAIGHT, From: London Pictures, 2011, 6 panels, 151 x 190 cm | 59.45 x 74.8 in, # GILB0128 Gilbert & George, GANGS STRAIGHT, From: London Pictures, 2011, 6 panels, 151 x 190 cm | 59.45 x 74.8 in, # GILB0128 Gilbert & George, ISLAM STRAIGHT, From: London Pictures, 2011, 4 panels , 151 x 127 cm | 59.45 x 50 in, # GILB0129 Gilbert & George, ISLAM STRAIGHT, From: London Pictures, 2011, 4 panels , 151 x 127 cm | 59.45 x 50 in, # GILB0129 Gilbert & George, KILLERS STRAIGHT, From: London Pictures, 2011, 8 panels, 151 x 254 cm | 59.45 x 100 in, # GILB0130 Gilbert & George, KILLERS STRAIGHT, From: London Pictures, 2011, 8 panels, 151 x 254 cm | 59.45 x 100 in, # GILB0130 Gilbert & George, KILLINGS, From: London Pictures, 2011, 6 panels, 151 x 190 cm | 59.45 x 74.8 in, # GILB0131 Gilbert & George, KILLINGS, From: London Pictures, 2011, 6 panels, 151 x 190 cm | 59.45 x 74.8 in, # GILB0131 Gilbert & George, LIFE STRAIGHT, From: London Pictures, 2011, 12 panels, 226 x 254 cm | 88.98 x 100 in, # GILB0132 Gilbert & George, LIFE STRAIGHT, From: London Pictures, 2011, 12 panels, 226 x 254 cm | 88.98 x 100 in, # GILB0132 Gilbert & George, MUM, From: London Pictures, 2011, 4 panels , 151 x 127 cm | 59.45 x 50 in, # GILB0133 Gilbert & George, MUM, From: London Pictures, 2011, 4 panels , 151 x 127 cm | 59.45 x 50 in, # GILB0133 Gilbert & George, MURDERS, From: London Picutres, 2011, 9 panels , 226 x 190 cm | 88.98 x 74.8 in, # GILB0134 Gilbert & George, MURDERS, From: London Picutres, 2011, 9 panels , 226 x 190 cm | 88.98 x 74.8 in, # GILB0134 Gilbert & George, MUSLIM STRAIGHT, From: London Pictures, 2011, 6 panels , 151 x 190 cm | 59.45 x 74.8 in, # GILB0135 Gilbert & George, MUSLIM STRAIGHT, From: London Pictures, 2011, 6 panels , 151 x 190 cm | 59.45 x 74.8 in, # GILB0135 Gilbert & George, RAID STRAIGHT, From: London Pictures, 2011, 9 panels , 226 x 190 cm | 88.98 x 74.8 in, # GILB0136 Gilbert & George, RAID STRAIGHT, From: London Pictures, 2011, 9 panels , 226 x 190 cm | 88.98 x 74.8 in, # GILB0136 Gilbert & George, RAPIST STRAIGHT, From: London Pictures, 2011, 20 panels, 302 x 317 cm | 118.9 x 124.8 in, # GILB0137 Gilbert & George, RAPIST STRAIGHT, From: London Pictures, 2011, 20 panels, 302 x 317 cm | 118.9 x 124.8 in, # GILB0137 Gilbert & George, RAT, From: London Pictures, 2011, 4 panels , 151 x 127 cm | 59.45 x 50 in, # GILB0138 Gilbert & George, RAT, From: London Pictures, 2011, 4 panels , 151 x 127 cm | 59.45 x 50 in, # GILB0138 Gilbert & George, Installationview Gilbert & George: LONDON Pictures at ARNDT 2012 Gilbert & George, Installationview Gilbert & George: LONDON Pictures at ARNDT 2012 Gilbert & George, SCHOOL, From: London Pictures, 2011, 20 panels, 302 x 317 cm | 118.9 x 124.8 in, # GILB0139 Gilbert & George, SCHOOL, From: London Pictures, 2011, 20 panels, 302 x 317 cm | 118.9 x 124.8 in, # GILB0139 Gilbert & George, STRANGLED, From: London Pictures, 2011, 4 panels, 151 x 127 cm | 59.45 x 50 in, # GILB0140 Gilbert & George, STRANGLED, From: London Pictures, 2011, 4 panels, 151 x 127 cm | 59.45 x 50 in, # GILB0140 Gilbert & George, TEENAGER, From: London Pictures, 2011, 12 panels, 226 x 254 cm | 88.98 x 100 in, # GILB0141 Gilbert & George, TEENAGER, From: London Pictures, 2011, 12 panels, 226 x 254 cm | 88.98 x 100 in, # GILB0141 Gilbert & George, TERROR PLOT, From: London Pictures, 2011, 9 panels, 226 x 190 cm | 88.98 x 74.8 in, # GILB0142 Gilbert & George, TERROR PLOT, From: London Pictures, 2011, 9 panels, 226 x 190 cm | 88.98 x 74.8 in, # GILB0142