Stuckism

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Stuckism is an international art movement that was founded in 1999 in Britain by Billy Childish (who left in 2001) and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting in opposition to conceptual art.^[1] The Stuckists formed as an alternative to the Charles Saatchi-patronised Young British Artists (also known as Brit Art or YBAs). The original group of thirteen artists has since expanded, as of November 2008, to 183 groups in 44 countries.

They have staged many shows, but have gained more attention for outspoken media comments and demonstrations, particularly outside Tate Britain against the Turner Prize, sometimes dressed in clown costumes. After exhibiting mainly in small galleries in Shoreditch, London, they were given their first show in a major public museum in 2004, The Walker Art Gallery, as part of the Liverpool Biennial. Other campaigns mounted by the group include official avenues, such as standing in the 2001 general election, reporting Saatchi to the Office of Fair Trading to complain about his power in the art world (the complaint was not upheld), and applying under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for Tate Gallery trustee minutes, which started a media scandal about the purchase of Chris Ofili's work, The Upper Room and led to an official rebuke of the Tate by the Charity Commission.

The group held disputes against the artist Stella Vine from 2004-2008.

Contents 1 Name 2 Origin 3 Manifestos 4 Activities 4.1 Demonstrations 4.2 The Stuckists Punk Victorian 4.3 A Gallery 4.4 Sir Nicholas Serota Makes an Acquisitions Decision 5 International Movement 5.1 Australia 5.2 America 5.3 Europe 5.4 Students 6 Ex Stuckists 6.1 Stella Vine 7 Criticism 7.1 Anti-Stuckist movement 7.2 Others 8 Group shows 9 Gallery 10 See also 11 Notes and references 12 Further reading 13 External links

[edit] Name

The name Stuckism was coined by Thomson in response to a poem published by Billy Childish in 1994, which records an argument with Tracey Emin in which she accused Childish of being stuck. the poem reads:

your paintings are stuck

you are stuck!

stuck! stuck! stuck!

Childish has said that this was in response to his declining to attend a talk with Emin.

[edit] Origin

Most of the members of the first thirteen-strong Stuckists group founded in 1999 had been in collaboration for up to two decades previously, and in 1979 had formed The Medway Poets, which included later Stuckists Bill Lewis and Sexton Ming. Other members of the first Stuckists group were Philip Absolon, Frances Castle, Sheila Clark, Eamon Everall, Ella Guru (now married to Sexton Ming), Wolf Howard, Sanchia Lewis (no relation to Bill Lewis), Joe Machine and Charles Williams.

[edit] Manifestos

The group are defined by their Stuckists manifesto, written by Childish and Thomson in 1999, that places great importance on the value of painting as a medium, as well as the use of it for communication and the expression of emotion and experience - as opposed to what they see as the superficial novelty, nihilism and irony of conceptual art and postmodernism.

The most contentious statement in their manifesto is: "Artists who don't paint aren't artists". In a second manifesto, the Stuckists declared that they aimed to replace postmodernism with Remodernism, a period of renewed spiritual (as opposed to religious) values in art, culture and society. Other manifestos include An Open Letter to Sir Nicholas Serota (which received a brief reply from him^[2]: Thank you for your open letter dated 6 March. You will not be surprised to learn that I have no comment to make on your letter, or your manifesto 'Remodernism'.), The Turner Prize, The Decrepitude of the Critic, and Handy Hints.

[edit] Activities

In January 1999, the first Stuckists group was co-founded by Thomson and Childish with 10 other artists (Sanchia Lewis became the 13th member in September during the first show). Founding artist Ella Guru started the Stuckist web site. In July 1999, the Stuckists were first mentioned in the media, in an article in The Evening Standard and quickly gained other coverage, helped by press interest in Tracey Emin who had been nominated for the Turner Prize. They have continued to gain media coverage since.

The Stuckists have staged numerous exhibitions of their work, starting in September 1999 with Stuck! Stuck! Stuck! in Joe Crompton's Gallery 108 (now defunct) in Shoreditch, and The Resignation of Sir Nicholas Serota. In 2000 they gained attention by staging The Real Turner Prize Show at the same time as the Tate Gallery's official version.

Billy Childish formally left the group in 2001. He has said "I disagreed with the way Charles presented the group, particularly in the media." He has further distanced himself by stating "I never, ever, attended any Stuckist demonstrations, and my work was not shown in the large Stuckist exhibition held in the Walker Art Gallery in 2004."

Thomson stood as a Stuckist candidate for the 2001 British General Election, in the constituency of Islington South & Finsbury, against Chris Smith, the then Secretary of State for Culture. He picked up 108 votes (0.4%).

From 2002 to 2005 Thomson ran the Stuckism International Centre and Gallery in Shoreditch, London. In 2003, under the title A Dead Shark Isn't Art, the gallery exhibited a shark which had first been put on public display in 1989 (two years before Damien Hirst's) by Eddie Saunders in his Shoreditch shop, JD Electrical Supplies. It was suggested Hirst may have seen this at the time and copied it, but that anyway Saunders was the real pioneering artist.^[3]

In 2003 they reported Charles Saatchi to the UK Office of Fair Trading, complaining that he had an effective monopoly on art. The complaint was not upheld.^[4] In 2003, an allied group Stuckism Photography was founded by Larry Dunstan and Andy Bullock. In 2005 the Stuckists offered a donation of 175 paintings from the Walker show to the Tate. This was rejected by the Tate Board of Trustees.

In August 2005 the Stuckists initiated a major controversy over the Tate's purchase of its trustee Chris Ofili's work The Upper Room for £705,000.^[5] In July 2006 the Charity Commission completed an investigation into The Tate's purchase of trustees' work, censuring the gallery for acting outside its legal powers.^[6] Sir Nicholas Serota stated that the Stuckists had "acted in the public interest".^[7] In October 2006, the Stuckists staged their first exhibition, Go West, in a commercial West End gallery, Spectrum London. This "major exhibition"^[8] signalled their entry as "major players" in the art world.^[9]

An international symposium on Stuckism took place in October 2006 at the Liverpool John Moores University during the Liverpool Biennial. The programme was led by Naive John, founder of the Liverpool Stuckists. There was an accompanying exhibition in the 68 Hope Gallery at Liverpool School of Art and Design (John Moores University Gallery).

[edit] Demonstrations

The Stuckists gained significant media coverage for eight years of protests (2000-2006 and 2008) outside Tate Britain against the Turner Prize, sometimes dressed as clowns. In 2001 they demonstrated in Trafalgar Square at the unveiling of Rachel Whiteread's Monument. In 2002, they carried a coffin marked The Death of Conceptual Art to the White Cube Gallery.^[10][11] In 2004 outside the launch of The Triumph of Painting at the Saatchi Gallery they wore tall hats with Charles Saatchi's face on and carried placards claiming that Saatchi had copied their ideas. In 2005 they protested outside the Turner Prize against the purchase of Ofili's The Upper Room.

Events outside Britain have included The Clown Trial of President Bush held in New Haven in 2003 to protest against the Iraq War. Michael Dickinson has exhibited political and satirical collages in Turkey for which he was arrested,^[12] and charged, but acquitted of any crime—an outcome which was seen to have positive implications for Turkey's relationship with the European Union.^[13]

[edit] The Stuckists Punk Victorian

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 and was part of the 2004 Liverpool Biennial. It consisted of over 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 an accompanying exhibition of Stuckist photographers. A book, The Stuckists Punk Victorian, was published to accompany the exhibition. The cover showed Paul Harvey's painting of Emily Mann.

Daily Mail journalist, Jane Kelly, exhibited a painting of Myra Hindley in the show, and was dismissed from her job.^[14]

[edit] A Gallery

In 2005, Fraser Kee Scott, Director of A Gallery, demonstrated with the Stuckists art group outside the Tate gallery against the gallery's purchase of The Upper Room, a work by Chris Ofili, then a serving Tate trustee.

In October 2005, Scott, described as "gallery owner—and Stuckist", said in The Daily Telegraph that Tate gallery chairman, Paul Myners, was hypocritical for refusing to divulge the price paid by the Tate for its purchase of The Upper Room, paintings by its trustee, Chris Ofili, who had asked other artists to donate work to the gallery.^[15]

In April 2007, some Stuckist artists were included in a group show at the A Gallery, Wimbledon, London. The gallery owner, Fraser Kee Scott, a member of the Church of Scientology, talked about the Church and the show in an interview in the 'South London Guardian'.^[16] Thomson told the Evening Standard that it was "outrageous" that the Stuckists should be linked to Scientology, as the artists had no connection with it.^[17] Thomson later said he accepted that it was not Scott's intention to link the show and the Church, and he considered that the matter was a misunderstanding that had been resolved.^[18]

In July 2007, the Stuckists held an exhibition at the A Gallery, I Won't Have Sex with You as long as We're Married,^[19][20] titled after words apparently said to Thomson by his ex-wife, Stella Vine on their wedding night.^[20] The show coincided with the opening of Vine's major show at Modern Art Oxford and was prompted by Thomson's anger that the material promoting her show omitted any mention of her time with the Stuckists, which he said had been influential on her work.^[19] Tate chairman Paul Myners visited both shows.^[21]

[edit] Sir Nicholas Serota Makes an Acquisitions Decision

Thomson's painting, Sir Nicholas Serota Makes an Acquisitions Decision, is one of the best known paintings to come out of the Stuckist movement,^[22] and a likely "signature piece" for the movement,^[23] standing for its opposition to conceptual art. It was painted in 2000 and has been exhibited in Stuckist shows since, as well as being featured on placards during Stuckist demonstrations against the Turner Prize.

It depicts Sir Nicholas Serota, Director of the Tate Gallery and the usual chairman of the Turner Prize jury, and satirises Young British Artist Tracey Emin's installation, My Bed, consisting of her bed and objects, including knickers, which she exhibited in 1999 as a Turner Prize nominee.^[24]

[edit] International Movement

The Stuckists have grown to an international movement and as of November 2008 numbered 183 (affiliated but independent) groups in 44 countries.^[25]

[edit] Australia

In October 2000, Regan Tamanui founded the Melbourne Stuckists,^[26] the fourth Stuckist group to be started and the first one outside the UK. On October 27, 2000, he staged the Real Turner Prize Show at the Dead End Gallery in his home, concurrent with three shows with the same title in England (London, Falmouth and Dartington), and one in Germany, in protest against the Tate Gallery's Turner Prize. Other Australian Stuckists include Godfrey Blow, who exhibited in The Stuckists Punk Victorian.^[27]

[edit] America

in 2000, Susan Constance founded the first US group The Pittsburgh Stuckists—the second group to be founded outside the UK. This was announced in the In Pittsburgh Weekly, 1 November 2000: "The new word in art is Stuckism. A Stuckist paints their life, mind and soul with no pretensions and no excuses."^[28] By 2006 there were 21 US Stuckist groups. There have been Stuckist shows and demonstrations in the US, and American Stuckists have also exhibited in international Stuckist shows abroad. US Stuckists include Jeffrey Scott Holland, Tony Juliano, Frank Kozik, Terry Marks and Jesse Richards.

[edit] Europe

The mainstay of the Stuckists has been in the UK, where by 2006 there were 63 groups. Artists include Elsa Dax, Paul Harvey, Naive John, Jane Kelly, Emily Mann, Udaiyan, Peter McArdle, Peter Murphy, Rachel Jordan and Guy Denning. John Bourne opened Stuckism Wales at his home, a permanent exhibition of (mainly Welsh) paintings. A regular guest artist, Mandy McCartin. Mark D and Arfius Arf are new affiliates.

Stuckists outside the UK include artists such as Peter Klint, Andreas Torneberg, Frank Christopher Schroeder (Germany), Odysseus Yakoumakis (Greece), Kloot Per W (Belgium) and Michael Dickinson (Turkey).

[edit] Students

A "Students for Stuckism" group was founded in 2000 by students from Camberwell College of Arts, who staged their own exhibition. S.P. Howarth was expelled from the painting degree course at Camberwell college for his paintings,^[29] and had the first solo at the Stuckism International Gallery in 2002, I Don't Want a Painting Degree if it Means Not Painting. Graduates who have joined the Stuckists include Abby Jackson. An "Underage Stuckists" group was founded in 2006 with their own manifesto for teenagers by two 16 year olds, Liv Soul and Rebekah Maybury.^[30]

[edit] Ex Stuckists

Co-founder, Billy Childish left the group in 2001, but has stated that he remains committed to its principles. Sexton Ming left to concentrate on a solo career with the Aquarium Gallery. Wolf Howard left in 2006, but has exhibited with the group since. Jesse Richards who ran the Stuckism Centre USA in New Haven, left the group in 2006, but still works with some current and former members on occasion. Mary von Stockhausen, who runs the Stuckist Centre Germany in Lewenhagen, left the group in 2007.

[edit] Stella Vine

In June 2000, Stella Vine went to a talk given by Childish and Thomson on Stuckism and Remodernism in London.^[32] At the end of May 2001, she exhibited some of her paintings publicly for the first time in the Vote Stuckist show in Brixton, and formed The Westminster Stuckists group.^[31] On 4 June, she took part in a Stuckist demonstration in Trafalgar Square.^[32][33] By 10 July, she renamed her group The Unstuckists.^[34] In mid-August, Thomson and Vine were married.^[35] A work by her was shown in the Stuckist show in Paris, which ended in mid-November, by which time she had rejected the Stuckists,^[31] and the marriage had ended.

In February 2004, Charles Saatchi bought a painting of Diana, Princess of Wales by Vine and was credited with "discovering" her. Thomson said it was the Stuckists and not Saatchi who had discovered her.^[36] At the end of March 2004, Thomson made a formal complaint about Saatchi to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), claiming that Saatchi's leading position was monopolistic "to the detriment of smaller competitors",^[37] citing Vine as an example of this.^[38] On 15 Apri, the OFT closed the file on the case on the basis that Saatchi was not "in a dominant position in any relevant market."^[39]

[edit] Criticism

[edit] Anti-Stuckist movement

In 1999, two performance artists, Yuan Chai and Jian Jun Xi, jumped on Tracey Emin's installation My Bed, a work consisting of the artist's own unmade bed, at the Tate Gallery's Turner Prize, in an unauthorised art intervention. Chai had written, among other things, the words "Anti Stuckism" on his bare back. Fiachra Gibbons of The Guardian wrote that the event "will go down in art history as the defining moment of the new and previously unheard of Anti-Stuckist Movement."^[40]

[edit] Others

The filmmaker Andrew Kotting released a manifesto declaring "The work should prove anti-Stuckist, genuinely post-modern, contingent and ad hoc in its thinking."

The London Surrealist group issued a manifesto denouncing Stuckism as well as Young British Artists. They state that stuckism "is a childish kicking against modernity that fails, pathetically, to challenge the underlying realities of capitalism, of the capitalist art market, of material, psychological, psychic and spiritual repression." and also establish that even though Britart "stand squarely among our (their) enemies" because of its total functionality within the capitalist structure, nevertheless this shouldn't mean opposing conceptual art since they say "is far from exhausted"^[41].

[edit] Group shows

UK

• 1999 Stuck! Stuck! Stuck!
• 2000 The First Art Show Of the New Millennium
• 2000 The Resignation of Sir Nicholas Serota
• 2000 Students for Stuckism: A Remodernist Painting Show and Talk
• 2000 Stuck!
• 2000 The Real Turner Prize Show
• 2001 The Stuckists: The First Remodernist Art Group
• 2001 The Oxford Stuckists First Exhibition
• 2001 Vote Stuckist
• 2001 Stuck in Worthing
• 2002 Stuck Up North!
• 2002 I Don't Want a Painting Degree if it Means Not Painting
• 2002 The First Stuckist International
• 2003 A Dead Shark Isn't Art

• 2003 The Stuckists Summer Show
• 2003 Stuck in Worthing, Again
• 2003 Stuck in Wednesbury
• 2003 War on Blair
• 2004 Members Only: the Artist Group in Contemporary Japan and Britain
• 2004 Stuckist Classics
• 2004 The Stuckists Punk Victorian
• 2004 "Stigmata" or "Censorious": The Stuckists Punk Victorian
• 2004 Stuck in the Country
• 2004 Stuckist Punk Victorian Lite If You Can't Be Bothered to Go to Liverpool
• 2004 More of the Welsh Bit of the Stuckists Punk Victorian
• 2006 Go West
• 2005 "Painting Is the Medium of Yesterday"—Paul Myners CBE, Chairman of Tate Gallery, Chairman of Marks and Spencer, Chairman of Aspen Insurance, Chairman of Guardian Media, Director of Bank of England, Director of Bank of New York. A Show of Paintings by the Stuckists, as Refused by the Tate Gallery. Guaranteed 100% Free of Elephant Dung.
• 2006 The Triumph of Stuckism
• 2007 Mark D and the Stuckists vs Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst
• 2007 I Won't Have Sex with You as long as We're Married^[42]
• 2008 An Antidote to the Ghastly Turner Prize

Stuck in Wednesbury, Wednesbury Museum & Art Gallery, England, 2003

Painting is the Medium of Yesterday, La Viande, London, 2005

Go West at Spectrum London, London, 2006

I Won't Have Sex with You as Long as We're Married, A Gallery, London, 2007

Australia

• 2000 The Real Turner Prize Show
• 2002 Stuck Down South

Belgium

• 2006 United Colours ltd. in Brussels

Czech Republic

• 2007 Stuck in the Middle of November/Uvízli v listopadu

France

• 2001 First Stuckist Show in Paris
• 2005 Les Stuckistes A Paris

Germany

• 2000 Stuckism in Germany
• 2000 Stuck in Freiburg
• 2000 Stuck in Köln
• 2004 Stuckists in the Walker—Stuckists in Lewenhagen
• 2006 Stuckomenta I in Hamburg

• 2006 Stuckomenta II in Lewenhagen
• 2007 Stuckomenta III in Munich
• 2007 Flotter stuckistischer Dreier in Hamburg

Greece

• 2007 Under the Cover of Romantic Anonymity

US

• 2002 Stuckist Paintings at the Fringe
• 2001 Touring Show
• 2002 We Just Wanna Show Some Fuckin' Paintings
• 2003 War on Bush
• 2004 The Stuckists Punk Victorian In the Toilet
• 2005 Addressing the Shadow and Making Friends with Wild Dogs: Remodernism

[edit] Gallery

Some UK artists.

Philip Absolon. Breakdown	John Bourne. Epsom Kitchen	Mark D. Victoria Beckham: America Doesn't Love Me	Elsa Dax. Bacchus
Eamon Everall. The Marriage	Ella Guru. Goodbye Columbus	Paul Harvey. Ford Anglia with Tent and Giotto Tree	Jane Kelly. If We Could Undo Psychosis 1
Bill Lewis. The Laughter of Small White Dogs	Joe Machine. Diana Dors with an Axe	Peter McArdle. Artist and Model	Charles Thomson. A Single Woman in London Is Never more than Six Inches from the Nearest Rat

[edit] See also

• Wesley Kimler (anti-conceptual art)
• Dogme 95
• New Puritans

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] Further reading

• Ed. Katherine Evans (2000), "The Stuckists" Victoria Press, ISBN 0-907165-27-3

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Stuckism

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Charles Thomson (artist)

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Billy Childish

• Stuckism International web site
• The Stuckists manifestoand the Remodernism manifesto
• Myspace Profile for Stuckism International
• Comprehensive essay by Charles Thomson on Stuckism
• Billy Childish interviewed about Stuckism
• List of Stuckist groups worldwide
• The Stuckists Punk Victorian at the Walker Gallery
• 2007 Interview with "the thing is..." magazine
• Photos of The Stuckists Punk Victorian
• Triumph of Stuckism symposium official site
• Stuckism in Germany
• Stuckism in Iran
• Stuckist issue of MungBeing magazine
• Stuckists and Ofili Tate controversy in The Observer
• Stuckist manifestos (1999–2000) and flyer (2005) in the Tate Gallery
• Interview with Peter Klint, Incubus' Choice, December 2006

v • d • e Stuckism Main articles Stuckism · Stuckist demonstrations · Stuckism in the United States · Stuckism in Australia · Charles Thomson, Stella Vine, and the Stuckists Co-founders Billy Childish · Charles Thomson Original group Philip Absolon · Frances Castle · Sheila Clark · Eamon Everall · Ella Guru · Wolf Howard · Bill Lewis · Sanchia Lewis · Joe Machine · Sexton Ming · Charles Williams Artists in UK Arfius Arf · Gina Bold · John Bourne · Jonathan Coudrille · Mark D · Paul Harvey · Stephen Howarth · Alexis Hunter · Abby Jackson · Naive John · Rachel Jordan · Jane Kelly · Emily Mann  · Peter McArdle · Mandy McCartin · Peter Murphy · Rémy Noë · Udaiyan · Stella Vine Artists in Europe Elsa Dax (France) · Guy Denning (France) · Michael Dickinson (Turkey) · Odysseus Yakoumakis (Greece) Artists in US Jeffrey Scott Holland · Tony Juliano · Frank Kozik · Terry Marks · Jesse Richards  · Nicholas Watson Artists elsewhere Godfrey Blow (Australia) · Asim Butt (Pakistan) · Regan Tamanui (Australia) Artworks Sir Nicholas Serota Makes an Acquisitions Decision Shows The Stuckists Punk Victorian · Go West · Addressing the Shadow and Making Friends with Wild Dogs: Remodernism · Galleries A Gallery · Stuckism International Gallery · Spectrum London Related groups Defastenism · Neomodern · Remodernism · Remodernist Film · Stuckist Photographers · The Medway Poets · The Romantic Anonymous Fellowship Stuckism opposed by Louisa Buck · Sarah Kent · Adrian Searle · Sir Nicholas Serota Stuckism opposed to Art intervention · Conceptual art · Damien Hirst · Installation art · Saatchi Gallery · Tate's purchase of The Upper Room · Tracey Emin · Turner Prize · White Cube · Young British Artists Artists' names in italics indicate artists no longer in the movement (as of June 2007)

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