The non-sexual subjects of their early photographs (1970-1977) and the homophobic atmosphere of British society of that time led the mainstream art press to fit the artists into heterosexual molds.

The open attitude of 1990s art criticism and the evident sexuality of Gilbert and George’s recent art have, nonetheless, failed to initiate an analysis of their early works from a gay perspective. Such exploration of homoerotic subjects has been a central theme of the artists’ work over the past two decades, and art critics have introduced the topic of homosexuality into discussions of their art, despite the artists’ downplay of its importance. Large pictographs from the 1980s show vivid cartoon-like penises larger-than-life-sized images from the 1990s depict the artists themselves, stripped nude, mooning the audience. Over the past two decades, British artists Gilbert and George have made enormous and colorful photographic art works depicting nude or semi-nude men alongside multiple self-portraits.