Gilbert & George prepare to open new exhibition at the White Cube, Bermondsey

They are two of Britain's most bankable artists, but Gilbert & George are nothing short of cynical when it comes to their stature.

Unless you're "dead" or "foreign", your art doesn't get talked about in the UK, they say.

The pair are outspoken from the outset as they get ready to open a major exhibition of their art at London's White Cube gallery, timed to mark their 50th year of working together.

"The media are much more Anglophobic than the general public," George Passmore says, admitting they often feel under-appreciated by the establishment itself for being "living and still here".

Gilbert Proesch tells me how, on a recent trip to Paris, and the night prior to our interview at the London gallery, he and his husband found themselves "being mobbed by young people".

The couple clearly connects with a younger generation that - like the artists - are more familiar with why you might want to put yourself into every picture.

"People say we invented the selfie - there's some truth in that," George says, as he stands next to a giant digitally manipulated picture of their faces.

The couple clearly get a kick from still being seen as current.

"It's extraordinary," says George. "Every year another generation of young people seem to like our work."

As Gilbert explains: "When we started out people were saying 'it's very interesting but it won't ever last…'"

But at last they have. Five decades on, their scatological approach to art might not be everyone's cup of tea, but they certainly have perfected the art of producing work that elicits a reaction.

Described by one critic as "buttoned up exhibitionists", there are few boundaries they haven't pushed.

"We call it de-shocking pictures," Gilbert explains. "It's to make us free - we are tearing down those walls."

If you're keen to experience an authentic G&G show, the exhibition certainly ticks those boxes.

Covering most of the space are The Beard Pictures, in which the pair appear as distorted versions of themselves masked by "surreal and symbolic" facial hair.

Beards are used as "an emblem of millennial youth" but also as a mark of religious faith and social status.

If that sounds too tame, there's no escaping the second part of the exhibition.

Their 'F***osophy' is a collection of nearly 4,000 statements, all using the F word, written in large font along the main corridor. Certainly not family friendly, but an amusing read.

There is often an endearingly puerile quality to their work but the White Cube's artistic director Susan May says the pair's influence shouldn't be underestimated.

"They are real pioneers, when you think about what they've done through performance and also their influence generally across fashion and media," she says.

"They want people to have an emotional response or a feeling, it could be that you're outraged or amused but they want to elicit some kind of response."

G&G say they stopped socialising with artists in 1976 as they didn't like the insular elitist art world. George insists they enjoy being the outsiders.

He says: "We don't want to be like an artist because they're all weird, we don't want to be like everybody else because they're normal.

"We want to be weird and normal at the same time because that's the great secret to keeping a free and open mind to create strange and wonderful things."

:: 'Gilbert & George: The Beard Pictures and their F***osophy' runs until 28 January at White Cube, Bermondsey.