Turner Prize 2006 Stuckist demo

Essays

STUCKIST DEMONSTRATION
Turner Prize demos: NPG/Tate (2000) • 2000 • 2001 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008 • 2009 • 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
On this page: Turner Prize demo and Turner Prize 2006

STUCKIST TURNER DEMO
The 7th annual Stuckist demo took place at
Tate Britain on Monday 4 December 2006.
More photos of the demo here
"The Stuckists have won!" says Momus
"The Stuckist protestors outside Tate Britain lend a festive air to
the queue to get in", says Grayson Perry in The Times (6.12.06)

EE and Frederico Penteado protest against the Turner Prize by, erm, quoting a Turner Prize judge.

STUCKISTS QUOTED

"A painting described as 'doodles done by a lobotomised computer' has won German-born artist Tomma Abts the world's most controversial art prize."
Stuckist quote in Reuters syndication, CNN International, New Zealand: stuff.com.nz, New Zealand Herald,
Australia: The Western Australian , The Courier & Mail, ninemsn, ABC (and here), news.com.au US: All Headline News

UK: Stuckist quote in The Times (4.12.06):
"The Turner Prize is symptomatic of all that is wrong with the Tate. It has long been a national joke. Tomma Abts paints silly little meaningless diagrams that make 1950s wallpaper look profound works of art in comparison. There are thousands of painters in the country who have something relevant to say about deeper experiences of life. Her work deserves a prize for vacuous drabness. It looks like doodles done by a lobotomised computer. Even Microsoft screensavers look attractive in comparison."

UK: Stuckist quote in The Financial Times (5.12.06):
The Turner Prize "has yet again managed the amazing achievement of finding the most vacuous work in British art."

UK: Stuckist quote in The Londonist (5.12.06)

"I AM STUCK WITH BEING A HERO OF THE STUCKIST TENDENCY"
- Lynn Barber The Observer (10.6.06)
Lynn Barber complains that her words "Is it all a fix?" (shown on a placard below) were taken out of context, thus implying she was misrepresented. However, the original context in The Observer (1.10.06) doesn't change the meaning at all. She was asking (about the Turner Prize), "Is it all a fix?" That is what is on the placard about the Turner Prize. What's the problem?

Placard also reported in The New Yorker, page182, Volume 83, Issues 1-8.

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SIR NICHOLAS SEROTA, TATE DIRECTOR, AT DEMO

Photo by Rick Friend
WATCH THE SEROTA MOVIE
here!
Movie (c) 2006 Rick Friend
"Can't you make another image?" Sir Nicholas Serota responds to a new Tate archive gift given to him during the Stuckist demo - a postcard of Charles Thomson's painting, "Sir Nicholas Serota Makes an Acquisitions Decision".

This was reported in The Guardian (reviews roundup) (5.12.06)
and with a photo in The Independent Pandora

Reverse of the demo leaflet. Serota's copy is now in the Tate Archive.

PAUL MYNERS,
TATE CHAIRMAN, AT DEMO

Photo by Rick Friend
Paul Myners (right), Chairman of the Tate Trustees, with Charles Thomson. Mr Myners had earlier said to John Bourne, "We are grateful for the extra publicity the Stuckists have given the Tate"

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DEMO IN THE PRESS

The Guardian (5.12.06), The Age (Melbourne) and Sydney Morning Herald (6.12.06):
"For the seventh year running, the group of anti-Tate, anti-Turner prize artists known as the Stuckists picketed Tate Britain as guests filtered into the gallery for the ceremony. Formerly dismissed as cranks, the Stuckists (so known because Tracey Emin once accused her then boyfriend, former Stuckist Billy Childish, of being "stuck") this year precipitated a Charity Commission report into conflict of interest on the Tate board of trustees. The group had campaigned against the Tate's purchase of Ofili's £600,000 installation, The Upper Room, while Ofili was a serving trustee. When the Charity Commission reported on the affair this summer, it reprimanded the Tate for mismanaging conflict of interest and expressed disappointment that better standards had not been met. Last night, the Stuckists called for the resignation of the Tate's director, Sir Nicholas Serota, and its chairman, Paul Myners, who also chairs the Guardian Media Group. They also brandished placards asking "Is it all a fix?", quoting a piece by Lynn Barber, a writer for the Observer and a Turner prize juror this year."

Demo also in The Independent and londonist (5.12.06),
Blog comment on pressmen and carterandrigby (5.12.06)

"Why I demonstrated against the Turner Prize for 7 years" on 3ammagazine.com

"Turner Prize is a big yawn" by Los Angeles Stuckists

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The Real Turner Prize show by the Stuckists
at the bar, 43 South Molton Street, London, W1K 5RS
Also visit Tesco Disco (Wednesday evenings)

Contact Emily Strange, email strange@o2imail.co.uk, tel 07729984561

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And before that...

In the Waltham Forest Guardian (3.10.06)

Turner Prize is stuck, stuck, stuck, says Richard Brooks in the Sunday Times (8.9.06)

Janet Street-Porter lashes "embittered" Stuckists in the Independent. Cutting here (18.5.06).

The Turner Prize 2006 nominees announced. Stuckist quote in the Daily Telegraph: the shortlist is "dull, pretentious and a big yawn", including Rebecca Warren's "ghastly formless sculptures that make Mr Blobby look like Michelangelo".

"When Hirst and Emin were nominees there was at least an unpredictability and innovation in the field. Now there is only the fag end of third-hand boring intellectual conceptualism (some of it painting)."
-Charles Thomson, co-founder of Stuckism, -Billy Childish, ex Stuckist

The Turner Prize is revealed to be a shambles in The Sunday Telegraph (30.4.06). Judges try to get non-eligible artists nominated, and they didn't even get to see the work because Tate curator, Lizzie Carey-Thomas, was too busy to tell them, so they're looking at photographs and catalogues instead. Stuckist co-founder Charles Thomson says it should be called the "Turner Prize for Catalogues."

Stuckism - CNN International broadcast October 28 & 29, 2006 Sat 6am, 2pm, 7pm + Sun 6am, 7pm (GMT) "the difference between Turner Prize pieces and the more radical artwork of the Stuckists" - Mail on Sunday (22.10.06)
See Stuckism also in "Painting Makes a Comeback" on CNN

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