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| STUCKIST DEMONSTRATION | |
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Turner Prize demos: NPG/Tate (2000)
• 2000
• 2001
• 2002 •
2003 •
2004 •
2005 •
2006
• 2007
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2008
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2009
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2010 Other demos: List of Stuckist demos • Trafalgar Square (2001) • White Cube (2002) • Saatchi Gallery (2005) Also on this site: Tate • Serota petition • Stuckist donation • Trustee scandal |
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| On this page: Turner Prize demo and Turner Prize 2004 |
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THE TURNER PRIZE
2004 "no doubt
veteran protesters the Stuckists will once again camp out on Tate Britain's
steps during the show's run, wailing that there are no proper figurative
painters amid the short list" "the annual
picket by the Stuckists art group, for whom Turner prize and 'good'
cannot exist in the same universe" Photo on BBC Russia here - click to photo no. 9. (Curiously the same photos on English BBC here without no. 9...) Also photos of
Stuckist demo on UPPA (Universal Pictorial Press and Agency) here
[broken link]. |
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| Stuckist
demo at Tate Britain 19.10.04 See also photo on Storybridge. |
Stuckist demo at Tate Britain 6.12.04 | ||||
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21 years of the Turner Prize - 5 years of Stuckist demonstrations There have been no painters in the Turner Prize for the last four years. The Stuckists demonstrated against the Turner Prize for the fifth year running on Tuesday 19 October (press launch of the Prize) and on Monday 6 Dec (Turner Prize day). Charles Saatchi's recent statement that more paintings should be in the Turner Prize endorses the Stuckists' campaign. Disappointingly he failed to back his words with action and turn up in a clown costume. Photography was invented during Turner's lifetime, but he didn't adopt this new medium. He painted pictures. he didn't even collage figures (which he drew notoriously badly) into his scenes. Turner would obviously not have won the Turner Prize, which should be renamed The Unlike Anything Turner Ever Did Prize.
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Charles Thomson recounts: When I arrived for the start of the demo outside Tate Britain, I gave one of the security attendants a copy of The Stuckists Punk Victorian book to pass on to Sir Nicholas Serota. A bit later in the morning, I was standing with other Stuckists on the demo at the foot of the steps in front of the museum, when a businessman walked by and climbed the first few steps. I started to apologise on behalf of the Tate for the lack of art in the Turner Prize or some such, when he spoke to me, not looking at all pleased, and said, "I've seen your show at Liverpool. It's a travesty." I was slightly caught off guard, firstly because I was surprised he had seen the show, and secondly because I'm used to Tate visitors expressing their wholehearted agreement with our demo. I assumed the work of ours he had seen wasn't traditional enough for him, so I mounted some response along the lines of there being trained artists including from the Royal Academy etc. in our group, but it turned out he was as unimpressed with the Royal Academy as he was with the Stuckists, adding what was obviously intended to be a show-stopper: "Painting is the medium of yesterday." I responded, "And of tomorrow". I was then approached by a taxi driver, presumably the one who had driven the businessman to the Tate, and was informed by him that the man I had spoken to was the boss. When I pressed him on what that meant, he said it was the Chairman or some such thing. I must confess it didn't mean much to me. I had no idea how the Tate was organised and what role the boss-type Chairman played in it, though I did recall he was probably the same person who had accompanied Sir Nicholas Serota to The Stuckists Punk Victorian Show at the Walker Art Gallery a few weeks previously. An hour or so later, the businessman, who I later confirmed was Paul Myners, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, re-appeared from the front door and, catching my glance, gave a cheery wave. |
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Above: leaflet handed out at Tate Britain on Turner Prize Day, 6 Dec 04 |
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THE
STUCKISTS REAL TURNER The Stuckists Real Turner Prize was won by Jane Kelly for her painting If We Could Undo Psychosis 2. Jane Kelly worked for the Daily Mail for fifteen years, but was sacked two months ago after her painting was exhibited in The Stuckists Punk Victorian show at the Walker Gallery in Liverpool as part of the Liverpool Biennial. The painting shows Myra Hindley holding a child and a teddy bear. Jane Kelly said of the work: "I've always been fascinated by Myra Hindley's disastrous life and because hers was the first horrible crime I knew about as a child. I wanted to see what she might have looked like in the kind of family situation she was always denied. My paintings try to undo history and change the bad things that have happened." Jane has been uncompromisingly honest in her personal and artistic convictions, and created a memorable image about an issue which is still of great contemporary concern. The painting can be seen at the Walker Gallery in the Stuckists show till 20 February. |
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THE ART CLOWN OF THE YEAR AWARD The
nominees for 2004 were: "A serious turn for the Turner Prize..... Detractors of the award include the Stuckists, a movement of contem- porary painters who pillory its conceptualist bias. Delve into their work, artistic ethos and alternative exhibition — the Real Turner Prize" - The Sunday Times (14.11.04) |
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By far the most
popular thread on the Tate Turner Prize public comments page is titled
'Are there any painters left?' |
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