Unlock Art, the final chapter: What’s so funny?

The final instalment of the Unlock Art series was revealed last week at a swanky little shindig along at Le Meridien Piccadilly.  The film entitled ‘What’s so funny?’  is fronted by the British comedian Tasmin Greig (Smack The Pony) and looks at the role humour has played across various art movements in the past 100 years.

At first glance, you may think there is nothing humorous about art in fact and visualise images of grand galleries housing beautifully crafted classical works.  Of course, that side exists too but a step away from the quiet please/no flash photography allowed style art houses lies a far more comical fraction.unlock

Luckily resident Unlock Art aficionado Linda Bolton was on hand to guide me and a few other lucky bloggers around some of the more humorous pieces from the Tate collection. From Marcel Duchamp’s ‘Fountain’ through to Lichtenstein’s – Mustard on White (one of my personal favourites) we viewed a range of works from artists who either presented unexpected juxtapositions like Dali or rather more subtly use a play on words on the title.

Wandering around the vast space that is Tate Modern had worked up my appetite so it was just as well perhaps that to celebrate the curtain falling on the series, the team behind Unlock Art were hosting a themed ‘last supper’ where each course took inspiration from a film in the series that ended with the most scrumptious and decadent dessert box I have ever seen.  ‘Whizz Bang’ indeed.