Gilbert & George Open a Permanent Exhibition Space in London

That the pair have created their own foundation isn’t so surprising: the artists have been deeply self-determining since they first met at Central Saint Martin’s in 1967. For their first public artwork in 1969, they painted their faces metallic gold and silver and stood on a table singing “Underneath the Arches,” an apparently jaunty tune whose lyrics are actually about homeless men sleeping under bridges. Ever since, they have appeared in their own work, and functioned as a single unit, always dressed in suits. (Today they’re both wearing Donegal tweed, in brown for Passmore and green for Proesch).

They have lived in Spitalfields, in the East End of London, since 1968. Their painstakingly restored 18th-century home is just a stone’s throw from the Centre, which was built as a brewery in 1820. Now as much as possible of this old property has been rescued and exquisitely revived, with additions that have created a handsome 2,700 square feet of gallery space, by local architects SIRS. “We wanted to make a unique experience of their world,” says SIRS co-founder Manuel Irsara. “So we’ve continued the language of their own home here, with the wide oak paneled floors and Georgian paint colors.”

The courtyard, entered through elaborate wrought iron gates, is paved with cobblestone reclaimed from the site. The gate itself, a contemporary piece designed by the artists and made by a master blacksmith, is painted Invisible Green and includes both their initials and a royal crest. The pair delight in their old-fashioned royalism as much as throwing around jarring words in their work. “It’s about free-ing ourselves, so we can be human, be in charge,” says Proesch of the contrast of two men in formal suits use of such language.

Gilbert and George are launching the Centre—which opens quite intentionally on the calamitous date of April 1—with their 2019 Paradisical Pictures series, that was first shown at Sprüth Magers gallery in Los Angeles. Made in their classic wide-screen format, like crazy stained glass windows, the artists’ faces peer out from these delirious collages in shades of lurid purple, cobalt, and green. In some, they are obscured by oozing fruits, dead leaves, decaying flowers, and revoltingly lush tropical leaves. In other works, their faces take the form of huge wrinkling dates.

“We are not believers in an afterlife,” says Proesch of this lurid take on paradise. “But these are pictures for people who believe in an afterlife and for those who don’t,” continues Passmore. “We want to be equally courteous to both groups. It’s a huge subject the world over.”

The colors, they say, of the minty greens and throbbing pinks that flood the imagery, simply represent their view of what this psychedelic party might be like, though they aver it is not the “after-party” of common acceptance. “We’re more interested in the pre-cum party!” they exclaim, like octogenarian tweens who have just discovered a new condition and a word to go with it.

Gilbert and George have always scavenged the East End for their subject matter—the complications of human life seen in its disposed drunks and drug addicts, and its detritus represented by the chewing gum, drug baggies, and excrement that litter the images. “We deal with the world as we see it,” says Passmore. “Not to reflect life or show life, but to form our tomorrows. We look inside ourselves, we never look out.”

In the courtyard they have planted a gingko tree, reputed in the Far East to have miraculous powers, whose leaves have also featured in their work since they represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 2005. It is yet to bud, but next to it is a luscious magnolia which is already bursting with brilliant red blooms.

“London is a very different place from how it was in 1967,” says Proesch. “We like to think we played a small part in that change. The pictures remain the same, and it is the world that changes around them.” Now, as London continues to evolve, they have ensured this little piece of Spitalfields will stay the same for quite a while.