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Saatchi "has begun to rely on the intuitions of… the Stuckism movement"
- Edward Lucie-Smith, Art Review
"Saatchi is following the Stuckists every move" - The Independent
Supercollector - a critique of Charles Saatchi by Rita Hatton and John A. Walker

CHARLES SAATCHI
THE STUCKIST


 Other pages
Stuckist demo at Triumph of Painting launch 2005 here
Saatchi copies Stuckism here
Saatchi reported to OFT 2004 here
Charles Saatchi and Stella Vine 2004 here
Stuckist background of Stella Vine here
"Stella Vine...was a protégée of the Stuckist movement" - Independent on Sunday article here

SAATCHI AND STUCKISM (2005) - The Triumph of Painting
Charles Saatchi promoted ex Stuckist Stella Vine as his new art star in 2004; he visited the Stuckism International Gallery and read the Stuckist manifesto. He has now adopted the Stuckist philosophy wholesale to lead the way in art (6 years too late). Stuckism was founded by artists in 1999 to promote painting as superior to (Charles Saatchi's) conceptual art. In an amazing volte-face this is now his own position in launching The Triumph of Painting shows.

Painting is.....
".....the most vital artistic means of addressing contemporary issues" (Stuckism 1999)
".....the most relevant and vital way that artists' choose to communicate" (Saatchi 2005)

CHARLES SAATCHI VISITS STUCKISM INTERNATIONAL (2004)
The Independent (18 May 2004): "Charles Saatchi has (unsuccessfully) tried to visit the headquarters of his most vociferous critics, the Stuckist movement. In a possible rapprochement bid, Saatchi and his wife Nigella Lawson pitched up in a black cab outside the Stuckist Gallery in Shoreditch on Saturday."
Herr von Stuck's inside story is here

SAATCHI AND STUCKISM (2003)
 Charles Saatchi has reiterated ideas published four years earlier in the Stuckist Manifesto against white wall galleries and the necessity of art being in them to be valid. He is now exhibiting a Stuckist painting as the key work in his new show. We said Stuckism and new figurative painting was the way forward for art. The art world derided our ideas and our work, So will the critics have a sudden change of heart or will Charles Saatchi get the same scathing response?

"these vociferous opportunists are revealed to be nothing more than a bunch of Bayswater Road-style daubers, without an original idea between them. Typical of the laughably bad work are...crude portraits." - Sarah Kent, Art Editor, Time Out, 2002
 NB Sarah Kent moonlights writing books for the Saatchi Gallery. We do not believe this presents any conflict of interest.

STUCKISM MANIFESTO 1999, SAATCHI'S IDEAS 2003

The February 2004 issue of Jackdaw has an effusion by Charles Saatchi (reprinted from Time Out, September 2003)), where he succeeds in stating variations on ideas that were contained in the Stuckist manifesto published four years previously (August 1999). The tone of his writing suggests that he is putting himself forward as some kind of innovator here. We suggest this is not quite the case.

The Stuckist is opposed to the sterility of the white wall gallery system.... the surroundings in which art is experienced... should not be artificial and vacuous
(Stuckists 1999)
After years of showing art floating in pristine arctic isolation, it's a revelation to break out of the white cube time warp.
(Saatchi 2003)

Art that has to be in a gallery to be recognised as art, isn't art
(Stuckists 1999)
If art can't look good outside the antiseptic gallery spaces... it condemns itself to a to a worryingly limited lifespan. (Saatchi 2003)

The Stuckist calls for an art that is alive with all aspects of human experience..... The Stuckist... calls for exhibitions to be held in homes and musty museums
(Stuckists 1999)
museums should respect their audience.....instead of spending millions on creating identical, austere modernist palaces
(Saatchi 2003)

.............................................................................................................................................................................
In June 2002 the Stuckism International Gallery opened with exposed brick walls, maroon walls and domestic furnishings. April 2003 the Saatchi Gallery opened with panelled walls, parquet floors, clocks and fireplaces in situ, after moving from his white wall St. John's Wood gallery to County Hall.

Links: The Jackdaw | Stuckist Manifesto | Saatchi Gallery