Stuckism - Celebrity Encyclopedia

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 for parliament, reporting Saatchi to the Office of Fair Trading to complain about his power in the art world, 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 (which led to an official rebuke of the Tate by the Charity Commission).

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:

Childish has said that this was in response to his declining to attend a talk with Emin where another Brit Artist was to deliver her talk 'whilst having her nose stuffed full of coke!'

Origin

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.

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 formerly 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."

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).

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]

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.

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,^[15] and a likely "signature piece" for the movement,^[16] 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.

International Movement

The Stuckists have grown to an international movement and as of November 2008 numbered 183 (affiliated but independent) groups in 44 countries.^[18]

Australia

In October 2000, Regan Tamanui founded the Melbourne Stuckists,^[19] 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.^[20]

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."^[21] 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.

Europe

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,^[22] 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.^[23]

Ex Stuckists

Co-founder, Billy Childish left the group in 2001, but has stated that he remains committed to its principles. Stella Vine, an artist promoted by Charles Saatchi in 2004, was first shown by the Stuckists in 2001. She rejected the group after a few months and has since expressed hostility to it.[1] 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.

Criticism

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."^[25]

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"^[26].

Group shows