The paperback edition of THE PARADISICAL PICTURES is created to celebrate the opening of the Gilbert & George Centre in East London.

Gilbert & George’s work confounds and rejects all art historical classification or affiliation to other schools or movements in art. As affirmed by THE PARADISICAL PICTURES, there is no formalist, aesthetic or conceptual precedent to the ideology and vision they convey with such intensity.

The paintings are fantastical, allegorical, narrative, representational, psychedelic, absurdist, modern yet archaic, surrealist-grotesque, inflected with both tragedy and comedy, filled with pathos, touchingly eloquent of human frailty, age and exhaustion.

THE PARADISICAL PICTURES suggest a chapter in a story that has been unfolding before them and will continue beyond them. This ‘paradise’ is not a destination but a stage on a longer journey. It is a dream of paradise and the exploration of an archetype that is both secular and sacred.

Text by: Michael Bracewell