Unlock Art - Your Guide to the Ideas Behind Art

Double acts might be easy to name in the worlds of comedy or music, even in film, but in the visual arts the myth tends to run more to trouble than double.

Double acts might be easy to name in the worlds of comedy or music, even in film, but in the visual arts the myth tends to run more to trouble than double.

In this short film, collaborators Jamie Hince and Alison Mosshart of The Kills get on their bike (a tandem, naturally) to challenge the idea that art is made by solitary, angst-ridden individuals. From Marina Abramović and Ulay's intense relationship, to Gilbert & George's ongoing artistic life as a pair, via Lucien Freud and Leigh Bowery, Jake and Dinos Chapman and Jeff Koons and Cicciolina they explore some of art's most interesting double acts and collaborations.

Great Double Acts is just one of an ongoing short film series: Unlock Art. So far the series has enlisted celebrity art fans including comedian Frank Skinner and TV presenter Dawn O'Porter to give you the inside track on some of the ideas that have shaped the art world of today.

Here's actor Alan Cumming taking a break from political spin in The Good Wife to take a spin around the world of Pop Art in the US and the UK.

While Jemima Kirke, best known as Jessa Johansson in Girls, asks the art world Where are the Women? In this film looking at how female artists have contended with the traditionally male-dominated art world throughout the centuries - and how some of them eventually took on the establishment in the 1970s.

You can see all the films from Unlock Art so far on the Tate website - keep your eyes out for the new Doctor Who (Peter Capaldi) taking a fitting look at surrealism.

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