Gilbert & George, subverters of the art world for 40 years, are taking over Tate Modern.

The eccentric duo's retrospective exhibition, launched today, is the biggest show the gallery has ever devoted to a single artist - or in this case pair of artists - and comprises more than 200 works.

Some incorporate nudity, bondage, semen, faeces and depictions of graphic sexuality. But as well as works such as The Penis, Naked Human World and New Horny Pictures, the exhibition features more melancholy portraits from the pair's early days.

The artists told the Evening Standard the show - their first London retrospective for more than 25 years - was a vindication of their legacy.

Gilbert Proesch said: "We've never been part of the London art establishments. Our work was dismissed by critics but we never gave up and always thought, 'Next time they will think it wonderful'."

George Passmore denied their art was shocking. "We were melancholics and then we discovered life," he said. "Our work has got more complex and schizophrenic but it's not controversial for ordinary people - it's what

they see in Spitalfields. Tate let us show without any censorship, which gave us an amazing freedom." Gilbert added: "People are not shocked - they all go to Faliraki. Anyway, shocking is good. If art is not extreme, it is invisible."

The pair have lived, worked and exhibited together in Spitalfields since they met at St Martin's School of Art in 1967.

Gilbert said: "Right now London is extraordinary - the centre of the universe. We have been saying that all our career but people haven't believed us."

They have no plans of giving up working from their interlinked three studios and two houses. "Artists never retire," said George. "If the Rolling Stones can go on why not us?" He said a joint obituary might read: "Perv Duo Pop Off."

The show includes their latest work, Six Bomb Pictures, which features newsagents' bills for the Standard. George said: "The Standard has our favourite newspaper posters in London."

It also features a 22-year-old Martin Clunes. The actor modelled for their 1983 work World. "We would get our friends to go to nightclubs and pick models," Gilbert said, adding of Clunes: "He was very friendly."

The exhibition, which occupies 18 rooms, is curated by Jan Debbaut and Ben Borthwick. Mr Debbaut said: "For the first time, a home audience has a chance to see their entire work."

• The show opens to the public on Thursday. www.tate.org.uk