Stuckism is an international
art movement that was founded in 1999 by
Billy Childish and
Charles Thomson to promote
figurative painting in opposition to
conceptual art. The first group of 13
British artists has since expanded, as of June 2011, to 219 groups in 50 countries.
After exhibiting mainly in small galleries in Shoreditch, London, Stuckists were given their first show in a major public museum in 2004, the Walker Art Gallery, as part of the Liverpool Biennial. They have staged shows and gained media attention for outspoken comments and demonstrations, particularly outside Tate Britain against the Turner Prize, sometimes dressed in clown costumes. They have also stated their opposition to the Charles Saatchi-patronised Young British Artists.
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.
show at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 2004]]
Although painting is the dominant artistic form of Stuckism, artists using other media such as photography, sculpture, film and collage have also joined, and share the Stuckist opposition to conceptualism and ego-art.
Name, founding and origin
,
Tracey Emin,
Charles Thomson,
Billy Childish and musician Russell Wilkinson
at the Rochester Adult Education Centre to record
The Medway Poets LP, 11 December 1987.]]
The name Stuckism was coined in January 1999 by Charles Thomson in response to a poem recited to him several times by Billy Childish, who records in it that his former girlfriend, Tracey Emin had said he was "stuck! stuck! stuck!" with his art, poetry and music. Later that month, Thomson approached Childish with a view to co-founding an art group called Stuckism, which Childish agreed to, on the basis that Thomson would do the work for the group, as Childish already had a full schedule. the group was promoted as artists, but members continued to work in various media, including poetry, fiction, performance, photography, film and music, as well as painting. which 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 this manifesto is: "Artists who don't paint aren't artists".
The second manifesto was An Open Letter to Sir Nicholas Serota which received a brief reply from him: "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'."
In Remodernism, their third 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 Handy Hints, Anti-anti-art, The Cappuccino writer and the Idiocy of Contemporary Writing, The Turner Prize, The Decreptitude of the Critic and Stuckist critique of Damien Hirst.
Manifestos have been written by other Stuckists, including the Students for Stuckism group. An "Underage Stuckists" group was founded in 2006 with their own manifesto for teenagers by two 16 year olds, Liv Soul and Rebekah Maybury, on MySpace. In 2006, Allen Herndon published The Manifesto of the American Stuckists, whose content was challenged by the Los Angeles Stuckists group.
Growth in UK
In July 1999, the Stuckists were first mentioned in the media, in an article in The Evening Standard and soon gained other coverage, helped by press interest in Tracey Emin, who had been nominated for the Turner Prize.
The first Stuckist show was Stuck! Stuck! Stuck! in September 1999 in Joe Crompton's Gallery 108 (now defunct) in Shoreditch, followed by The Resignation of Sir Nicholas Serota. In 2000 they staged The Real Turner Prize Show at the same time as the Tate Gallery's Turner Prize.
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, and had the first solo at the Stuckism International Gallery in 2002, I Don't Want a Painting Degree if it Means Not Painting.
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%). Childish left the group at this time.
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.
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. 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. 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. Sir Nicholas Serota stated that the Stuckists had "acted in the public interest". In October 2006, the Stuckists staged their first exhibition, Go West, in a commercial West End gallery, Spectrum London. This "major exhibition" signalled their entry as "major players" in the art world.
. Charles Saatchi.]]
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).
By 2006 there were 63 groups in the UK. Artists include Naive John, Mark D, Elsa Dax, Paul Harvey, Jane Kelly, Udaiyan, Peter McArdle, Peter Murphy, Rachel Jordan, Guy Denning and Abby Jackson. John Bourne opened Stuckism Wales at his home, a permanent exhibition of (mainly Welsh) paintings. Mandy McCartin is a regular guest artist.
In 2010, Paul Harvey's painting of Charles Saatchi was banned from the window display of the Artspace Gallery in Maddox Street, London, on the grounds that it was "too controversial for the area". It was the centrepiece of the show, Stuckist Clowns Doing Their Dirty Work, the first exhibition of the Stuckists in Mayfair, The gallery announced they were shutting down the show. and protested with emails to the gallery. Subsequently, the painting was reinstated and the show continued. and charged, but acquitted of any crime—an outcome which was seen to have positive implications for Turkey's relationship with the European Union.
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.
A Gallery
, Wimbledon, July 2007. Paintings by Peter McArdle (left) and Paul Harvey, sculpture by Adrian Bannister.]]
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 that year, 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. Ofili had asked other artists to donate work to the gallery.
In April 2007, some Stuckist artists were included in a group show at the A Gallery. Scott, who was the gallery owner and a member of the Church of Scientology, talked about the Church and the show in an interview in the South London Guardian. 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. 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.
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, titled after words apparently said to Thomson by his ex-wife, Stella Vine on their wedding night.
Sir Nicholas Serota Makes an Acquisitions Decision
.
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, and a likely "signature piece" for the movement, 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.
International movement
In 2000
Regan Tamanui started the first Stuckist group outside Britain in
Melbourne,
Australia, and it was decided that other artists should be free to start their own groups also, named after their locality. Stuckism has since grown into an international art movement
America
Canada
David Wilson is the founder of
The White Rock Stuckists in
British Columbia and there are also 3 other Stuckist groups in
Canada. 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 (left in 2006).
Pakistan
Asim Butt founded the first Pakistani Stuckist group, The Karachi Stuckists, in 2005. At the end of 2009 he was thinking of expanding The Karachi Stuckists with new members, but in 15 January 2010 he committed suicide. In 2011 Sheherbano Husain restarted the group. 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.
New Zealand
In 2005 Mike Mayhew founded The Christchurch Stuckists in New Zealand.
2006 Stuckomenta II in Lewenhagen
2007 Stuckomenta III in Munich
2007 Flotter stuckistischer Dreier in Hamburg
;Greece
2010 Under the Cover of Romantic Anonymity: The 1st Stuckist Event in Greece
;Iran
2010 Tehran Stuckists: Searching for the Unlimited Potentials of Figurative Painting
2008 An Antidote to the Ghastly Turner Prize
2010 The Enemies of Art
2010 Stuckist Clowns Doing Their Dirty Work
2011 Stuck on the Wall: The Young and the Old
2011 The Enemies of Art
, New York, venue for
, 2005]]
;US
2001 Touring Show
2002 Stuckist Paintings at the Fringe
2002 We Just Wanna Show Some Fuckin' Paintings
2003 War on Bush
2004 The Stuckists Punk Victorian in the Toilet
2005
2009 New Life: The Premiere Exhibition of the Miami Stuckists
2010 Stuck in Fort Lauderdale: The Raving Reactionary Miami Stuckist Daubers
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.
;Stella Vine
(right) with Charlotte Gavin (left) and Joe Machine at the Vote Stuckist show in 2001, where her work was first shown publicly. 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. On 4 June, she took part in a Stuckist demonstration in Trafalgar Square. By 10 July, she renamed her group The Unstuckists. In mid-August, Thomson and Vine were married. 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, At the end of March 2004, Thomson made a formal complaint about Saatchi to the Office of Fair Trading, claiming that Saatchi's leading position was monopolistic "to the detriment of smaller competitors", citing Vine as an example of this. On 15 April, the OFT closed the file on the case on the basis that Saatchi was not "in a dominant position in any relevant market."
Responses
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."
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, and stating 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."
Gallery
Some UK artists.
See also
List of International Stuckists
Remodernism
Anti-anti-art
Dogme 95
New Puritans
Wesley Kimler (anti-conceptual artist)
Notes and references
Further reading
Ed. Katherine Evans (2000), "The Stuckists", Victoria Press, ISBN 0-907165-27-3.
Ed. Frank Milner (2004), "The Stuckists punk Victorian", National Museums Liverpool, ISBN 1-902700-27-9.
Robert Janás (2009), "Stuckism International: The Stuckist Decade 1999 - 2009", Victoria Press, ISBN 0-907165-28-1.
Charles Thomson, Robert Janás, Edward Lucie-Smith (2011), "The Enemies of Art: The Stuckists", Victoria Press, ISBN 0-907165-31-1.
External links
Stuckism International web site
The Stuckists manifesto and 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
Category:Remodernism
Category:Art genres
Category:Art movements
Category:Contemporary art
Category:1999 establishments
