COLLABORATIVE MINDS

Artistic collaboration need not only extend to esquisite corpse at dinner parties. During the 60’s and 70’s a new model of synchronised output planted a stake of defiance in the art world, championed by now household names such as Gilbert & George and Claes Oldenburg and Cossje van Bruggen. Shared authors with double the internal dialogue, twice the self-critique, and half the narcissism (in theory). And in honour of our imminent exhibition Convergence featuring the collaborative works of Lucy Devenish & Luke Walker here is a list of five international duos you really should know about:

BOB & ROBERTA SMITH

Contemporary artist, writer, musician, and educator ….. and I use the singular because they are but one person, Patrick Brill. Son of the landscape painter Frederick Brill who also headed Chelsea School of Art in the ‘60s and ‘70s, Bob & Roberta Smith is the pseudonym to which Brill attributes his colourful slogan art  and of whom journalist Lynn Barber wrote ‘I see him as a sort of  Ian Dury of the art world, someone who keeps on trucking, doing his own thing, making absolutely no concessions to fashion or marketability, but generally giving pleasure to everyone who comes across him.’

OS GÊMEOS

Graffiti artists and identical twins Otavio & Gustavo Pandolfo better known as Os Gêmeos (The Twins in Portuguese) have transformed mundane walls from their native Sao Paulo to Lisbon, and even the Tate Modern in 2008, with their enormous yellow-skinned, dream-inspired characters. Influenced by traditional hip hop style and Brazilian culture their murals have become a synonymous with both.

ELMGREEN & DRAGSET

Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, are based in Berlin and have worked together since 1995. As with many artistic duos they were a couple for the first ten years of their collaborative career. Their work explores relationships between art, architecture and design and is known to be delivered with a subversive wit that rarely strays far from important social and cultural concerns. You may well remember them from 2005 when they erected a Prada boutique in the middle of the Texan desert.

GILBERT & GEORGE

‘Nothing happens in the world that doesn’t happen in the East End’ are the words of George Passmore who with his partner Gilbert Prousch make up the colourful duo of Gilbert & George. Known for their sartorial formality and kaleidoscopic graphic-photo based works, their approach has always borne an anti-elitist sentiment. They refer to their collective identities as living sculptures and are inspired by the microcosm that surrounds their beloved Spitalfields.  

COEN BROTHERS

Joel and Ethan Coen are American filmmakers and a collective cinematic institution thanks to their series of neo-noir hits. They have written, directed and produced more than 15 films together and have garnered deserved universal recognition for their dark and atmospheric comedies. If you haven’t already, invest some time in the brilliantly crafted Fargo for which Joel’s wife Frances McDormand won an Academy Award.