Image:Stuckists-Walker-2004.jpg, Liverpool, 2004. Foreground: artists Rachel Jordan and Paul Harvey. Between them (back turned): Bill Lewis. Background paintings, left to right: Wolf Howard, Mandy McCartin, Charles Thomson, Ella Guru.]] '''The Stuckists Punk Victorian''' was the first national gallery exhibition of Stuckist art. It was held at the Walker_Art_Gallery and Lady_Lever_Art_Gallery in Liverpool from September_18 2004 to February_20 2005, and was part of the 2004 Liverpool_Biennial. It comprised more than 250 paintings by 37 artists, mostly from the UK but also with a representation of international Stuckist artists from the US, Germany and Australia. There was also a smaller accompanying exhibition of Stuckist photographers. A book, ''The Stuckists Punk Victorian'', was published to accompany the exhibition. ==Show== The main show was in a large gallery at the Walker which normally houses works from the contemporary collection. The paintings were hung in a manner akin to the "salon" style, using the whole height of the wall. "Founder and featured artists" were each given their own space, while representative works from other UK and international artists were grouped accordingly. There was also a free-standing display of work which satirised the Tate_Gallery and the Turner_Prize. A separate smaller show at the Lady Lever Gallery concentrated on the theme of "Art and Artists", including Stuckist interpretations of past work by artists such as Thomas_Gainsborough, Frans_Hals and Georges_Seurat. Here also was the first exhibition by Stuckist photographers. The Gallery posted a notice: :VISITOR NOTICE: THE STUCKISTS PUNK VICTORIAN :Stuckist artists believe in "honest and uncensored expression". Their wide range of subject matter includes themes of a sexual and violent nature. Some of the images in this exhibition may not be suitable for children.Walker Art Gallery website Retrieved March 26, 2006 ==Book== Image:Stuckists-Punk.jpg A 144-page book was published by National_Museums_Liverpool to accompany the show with 150 colour illustrations, including work by all the artists, as well as photographs showing the history of the group. A photo from 1987 shows some of the group members in an earlier form as The_Medway_Poets, at which time Tracey_Emin was associated with them. Other photos are of demonstrations outside the Turner_Prize, two artists (Ella_Guru and Sexton_Ming) getting married in drag, and Stella_Vine in the ''Vote Stuckist'' show in 2001. The book also includes two Stuckist manifestos, biographies of the artists, a section on Stuckist photographers, and two essays, "A Stuckist on Stuckism" by group co-founder, Charles Thomson and "Manifestos From the Edge and Beyond" by art historian Paul_O'Keefe. The book was edited by Frank Milner and designed by March Design, Liverpool. ===Cover=== The image on the cover is a painting by Paul Harvey (acrylic on canvas, 212.5 x 75.5 cm), and was originally intended to accompany a previous show, the ''Stuckists Real Turner Prize Show 2003'', when the placard held by the main figure read "SEROTA NEEDS A GOOD SPANKING". Due to an argument between Harvey and another artist, Gina_Bold, the painting was not used and the show was cancelled. Some months later the placard was repainted to promote the Walker show. The main figure is based on a photograph of the model, musician and DJ Emily_Mann, taken by Charles Thomson. ===A Stuckist on Stuckism=== Thomson's essay starts with an account of a confrontation with Sir Nicholas_Serota in Trafalgar_Square in 2001 on the occasion of a Stuckist demonstration against the installation of Rachel_Whiteread's sculpture ''Monument''. It then traces the history of the group from origins in 1979 to its foundation in 1999, reviews "A Dysfunctional Decade of Saatchi Art", describes Stuckist demonstrations at the Turner_Prize and gives background on artists who have left the Stuckists—co-founder Billy_Childish, Stella_Vine and Gina_Bold. A final section puts the group in context in a wider historical view with a proposition that the development of Modernism has been a "story of fragmentation" and that it is necessary to provide a holistic approach. A passage by Eamon_Everall is quoted to explain Stuckist art: {{cquote|The Stuckists as a group are not wedded to some formulaic and often stultifying notion of what a painting should look like, as in past movements. For them the unifying element is not visual: it is their overriding and enduring search for emotional veracity and their concern with the authenticity and honesty of the creative impetus.}} ===Manifestos From the Edge and Beyond=== Paul O'Keefe's essay is in three sections. The first treats the history of Modernism in Britain and the scorn that greeted the 1910 Post-impressionist exhibition. He describes the emergence of the homegrown radical movement, the Vorticists and how they clashed on one occasion, using brass knuckledusters, with rival avant-garde group the Italian Futurists. He includes Royal_Academy President, Alfred_Munnings', notorious 1949 speech, wanting to kick Picasso. He traces the evolution of radicalism into the new establishment, setting the scene for the Stuckist challenge to it. The second section is an analysis of a BBC2 ''Newsnight'' programme on October_19, 1999 hosted by Jeremy_Paxman with Charles Thomson attacking that year's Turner Prize and artist Brad_Lochore defending it. Thomson was displaying Stuckist paintings, while Lochore had brought along a plastic detergent bottle on a cardboard plinth. At one stage Lochore states, "if people say it's art, it's art". Paxman asks, "So you can say anything is art?" and Lochore replies, "You could say everything is art..." At this point Thomson, off-screen, can be heard to say, "Is my shoe art?" while at the same time his shoe appears in front of Lochore, who observes, "If you say it is. I have to judge it on those terms." Thomson's response is, "I've never heard anything so ludicrous in my life before." Part three describes the Stuckists' line of argument as "devastating in its capacity to demolish the pretensions of Conceptualism" and cites Damien_Hirst's observation that "The best spot painting you can have by me is one painted by Rachel" (one of Hirst's assistants). O'Keefe's conclusion remains undecided as to "whether the Momart warehouse blaze indeed represents the funeral pyre of BritArt" and as to the future of Stuckism's role "from its outpost on the edge". ==Daily Mail== Image:Kelly-Psychosis2.jpg ''Daily_Mail'' feature writer Jane_Kelly, who is also a Stuckist artist, was sacked from the paper after exhibiting her painting ''If We Could Undo Psychosis 2'' in the show. The painting shows a family group of mother and two children with child-killer Myra_Hindley substituted for the father and holding a teddy bear. (In 1997 the ''Daily Mail'' had condemned Britartist Marcus_Harvey's painting ''Myra'', a portrait of Hindley made from children's hand prints, when it was exhibited at the Sensation_exhibition in the Royal_Academy, London.) The Kelly incident was reported on the front page of The_Guardian newspaper, which commented: :"Stuckism, the art movement founded by Tracey Emin's former boyfriend to oppose the pretensions of Britart, claims to advocate 'honest, uncensored expression'. Unfortunately, the Daily Mail does not appear to share those values". It described how the paper welcomed a previous work by Kelly showing London Mayor Ken_Livingstone in the context of the 1944 Stauffenberg plot against Hitler. The ''Daily Mail'''s managing editor, Lawrence Sear, who dismissed Kelly, described as "absolute rubbish" the claim that the loss of her job was related to her artwork.http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1315987,00.html ==Reaction== [[Image:Stuckists-Walker-Serota.jpg|thumb|right|Sir Nicholas Serota visits ''The Stuckists Punk Victorian''. Left to right: Charles Thomson, John Bourne, Sir Nicholas Serota, Joe Machine, September_17, 2004]] There was a very diverse reaction to the show. Adrian_Searle, art critic of ''The Guardian'' called it "dreadful" http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1308939,00.html and Tate Chairman, Paul_Myners denounced it as "a travesty". Sir Nicholas Serota, who visited the show and talked to the artists, said it was "lively". "Young_British_Artist" Gavin_Turk advised in a BBC interview that people should try to see the show. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A3039121 The sexual and violent content of some of the paintings was commented on. Mark_Lawson on BBC Radio 4 warned, with particular reference to a painting by Joe_Machine of two sailors having anal sex, that the paintings might cause controversy, as they were "certainly not ... conventional" but contained "very bold and explicit images". http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/frontrow/frontrow_20040917.shtml Susan Mansfield in ''The Scotsman'' said they were "far from traditional or conservative" and "as shocking as anything Jake_and_Dinos_Chapman could produce", adding "the Stuckists have a strong philosophical base".http://news.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=1133102004 Simon Pia, another writer in the same paper, predicted the group would be "the next big thing in art". http://news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=1109192004 A review in the inflight magazine ''Velocity'' evaluated the work as "a worthy argument for painting as the fundamental medium of artistic expression ... a refreshing willingness to be understood in today's world of oblique messages." http://www.vlmmagazine.com/features/2004/nov/culture.html ''The Sunday Times'' saw the presence of the work in an established national museum as "another step on the road to critical acceptance", as did the museum review site ''24hourmuseum'': ""They’ve spent years fighting the establishment. Now ... the Stuckists have been invited to join it." http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/exh/ART24134.html ==Fringe shows== There were also 6 simultaneous fringe shows: *''"Stigmata" or "Censorious": The Stuckists Punk Victorian'' at the Rivington_Gallery in London *''Stuck in the Country'' at the Brockdam_Gallery in Northumberland *''Stuckists in the Walker - Stuckists in Lewenhagen'' at the Stuckism Centre in Germany *''Stuckist Punk Victorian Lite If You Can't Be Bothered to Go to Liverpool'' in Edinburgh *''More of the Welsh Bit of the Stuckists Punk Victorian'' at the Stuckism Centre in Wales *''The Stuckists Punk Victorian In the Toilet'' in New_Haven, US. The Rivington_Gallery issued a statement from its Director, Harold_Werner_Rubin that he was showing work from private collections by ex-Stuckists, Stella_Vine and Gina_Bold, which had been barred from the Walker show because of their objection, as well as a painting ''Charity Work'' by Philip Absolon which had also been excluded. http://www.stuckism.com/Rivington.html#Stigmata ''The Scotsman'' reported that Stella Vine had threatened to commit suicide if her work was in the Stuckist show.http://news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=1109192004 ==Tate donation== 175 paintings from the show with a value of £500,000 were offered as a donation to the Tate_Gallery gallery in 2005. This offer was rejected by Tate Director, Sir Nicholas Serota, who wrote, "the works in question have been reviewed by our curators and presented to the Board of Trustees ... We do not feel that the work is of sufficient quality in terms of accomplishment, innovation or originality of thought to warrant preservation in perpetuity in the national collection." The_Times reported a page lead on the rejection, stating, :"The Tate was accused yesterday of snubbing one of Britain’s foremost collections after it rejected a gift of 160 paintings that had been given pride of place at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. Its director, Sir Nicholas Serota, said that the works did not deserve to be in a national collection, even though their five-month exhibition last autumn drew thousands of people to the Walker, one of the outstanding collections of fine art in Europe and part of National Museums Liverpool." http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1710820,00.html ==The Stuckists== {{main|Stuckism}} The Stuckists were founded in 1999 by Charles Thomson and Billy Childish to promote figurative painting and oppose conceptual art. The name was derived from an insult by Tracey Emin. The original group of 12 artists has now grown to an international movement of over 120 groups in 30 countries. Childish left the group in 2001. The Stuckists are most widely known for staging demonstrations against the Turner Prize dressed as clowns. In 2005 they drew press attention to an alleged conflict of interest over the Tate's purchase of its trustee Chris_Ofili's work ''The Upper Room''. ==Artists in the show== Image:Absolon-Job-Club.jpg Image:anewerolympia.jpg Image:facepack.jpg Image:Harvey-Madonna.jpg Image:Lewis---God-Is-An-Atheist.jpg Image:Machine-Grandfather.jpg Image:McArdle-Annunciation.jpg Image:Thomson-Greece.jpg Paintings: ''Job Club'' by Philip Absolon, ''A Newer Olympia'' by Eamon Everall, ''Sex Ming with face pack'' by Ella Guru, ''Madonna'' by Paul Harvey, ''God Is an Atheist: She Doesn't Believe in Me'' by Bill Lewis, ''My Grandfather Will Fight You'' by Joe Machine, ''An Annunciation'' by Peter McArdle, ''A Long Way from Greece'' by Charles Thomson ===Featured artists=== Philip_Absolon, Frances_Castle, Elsa_Dax, Eamon_Everall, Ella_Guru, Paul Harvey, Wolf_Howard, Bill_Lewis, Joe_Machine, Peter_McArdle, Mandy_McCartin, Sexton_Ming, Charles Thomson, Charles Williams ===UK artists=== Stephen_Coots, David_John_Beesley, Dan_Belton, John_Bourne, Jonathon_Coudrille, Michelle_England, Stephen_Howarth, Naive_John, Rachel_Jordan, Jane_Kelly, Emily_Mann, Daniel_Pincham-Phipps, Matthew_Robinson, Mary_von_Stockhausen. ===International artists=== Godfrey_Blow, J_Todd_Dockery, Brett_Hamil, Tony_Juliano, ZF_Lively, Terry_Marks, Jesse_Richards ===Photographers=== Andy_Bullock, Larry_Dunstan, Wolf_Howard, Charles Thomson ==See also== *Stuckism *Stuckism_Photography *Stuckist_demonstrations *Stuckism_in_Australia *Stuckism_in_America *Remodernism *Go_West_(exhibition) ==References== ==Sources== * Ed. Frank Milner (2004), "The Stuckists Punk Victorian" National Museums Liverpool, ISBN 1-902700-27-9 == External links == * The show on Stuckism web site * The show on the Walker Gallery web site *The show on the Stuckism Photography web site *Charles Thomson's essay "A Stuckist on Stuckism" online *BBC interview with Bill Lewis at the show *Article on the show on 24hourmuseum.org *Article in Art Fairs International *Nerve magazine review of the show Category:Art_exhibitions The Stuckists Punk Victorian The Stuckists Punk Victorian The Stuckists Punk Victorian The Stuckists Punk Victorian