Before the colourful, monumental images that made them famous, Gilbert & George were two sharply dressed young men turning drinking, nightlife and everyday life into art.
The key to Gilbert & George is their idea of “art for all.” Don't look for a hidden, complicated subject. Look at how deliberately they turn something ordinary — going out, drinking, being themselves — into an artistic performance.
Inside the exhibition
Gilbert & George. Drifters is presented at the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo from 30 May 2026 to 1 April 2027. The exhibition focuses on the duo's early career and, specifically, their Drinking Pieces (1971–1974).
After graduating from the Saint Martin's School of Art, Gilbert & George moved to Spitalfields in London's East End. At a time when conceptual art could appear deliberately intellectual or detached, they wanted to make what they called “art for all” — art rooted in their own lives and the world around them.
That meant embracing subjects that traditional art might have considered too ordinary: the city, nightlife, drinking, friendship and themselves. Drinking wasn't merely something represented in their work; it became part of their artistic identity and practice.
The central work, Drifters, was created in 1972 for an exhibition in Rome. Because the duo did not have the funds to produce the large photographic works they wanted to make, they created large charcoal drawings instead. The work consists of separate sections filled with words and images, with the artists themselves appearing among tangled branches, dressed in their characteristic suits.
Words such as “Gin and Tonic” and “Brazenly Plastered” sit alongside references to their carefully constructed image as English gentlemen. The tension between respectability and excess is already there — a combination that would become central to their later work.
The presentation also includes two early photographic works, Destructivism and Carefree, together with other Drinking Pieces. Seen together, these works show the duo experimenting with different media and gradually developing the distinctive visual language that would later make them internationally famous.
Worth travelling for?
Worth the stop — especially if you're visiting the Kröller-Müller for the first time. Drifters is small, but historically fascinating: it lets you see Gilbert & George before they became Gilbert & George, experimenting with the ingredients that would define their career — themselves, the city, performance, words, photography and everyday life.
Worth the trip: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Artlovers mood: Witty · Provocative · Urban · Playful
Gilbert & George. Drifters
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