Stuckism press cuttings

STUCKISM PRESS CUTTINGS
Stuckism in the media - including, press, radio and TV. All dates are in UK format, day-month-year.

For press on specific subjects see Stuckist demonstrations and Tate Trustee Scandal. For blogs, see blogs page.
For press prior to 2002, see UK News and International News pages. For 1999-2000, see TV/Radio/Press archive.
Other coverage can be found via google news, google books and google scholar

The List - not a Stuckist reaction 3.7.08
Neil Cooper writes of painters exhibiting in "Altered States of Paint" at Dundee Contemporary Arts: "Jutta Koether, Till Gerhard, Andreas Dobler, Angela de la Cruz, Neil Clements and Rabiya Choudry aren’t involving themselves in some Stuckist reaction to Conceptualism, as with the poets, mystics and psychedelicists who inspired them (by way of William Blake leaping into Lewis Carroll’s Looking Glass), these artists are desperately seeking something. Something other, at that." Link

Sunday Telegraph - Ken Livingstone 9.3.08
Stuckist quote on yet another conflict of interest involving Tate trustee Jeremy Deller, this time with Ken Livingstone. Link

Daily Mail - Shibboleth 24.2.08
Stuckist quote on Doris's crack aka Shibboleth, which cost £23,000 to ship: Link

BBC Radio 4 Front Row 19.2.08
Mark Lawson alludes to Stuckists on in conversation with airhead "Art is sexy! Art is money-sexy! Art is money-sexy-social-climbing-fantastic!" Louisa Buck and Brad Lochore who thinks someone's shoe is art (video).
Here is a sample of the conversation concerning Duchamp's urinal. Lochore (contradicting himself as usual within a single sentence): "it does remain the kind of butt up against which everyone seems to debate whether things are or are not art, which - I think we've kind of moved beyond that ..." Lawson comments: "you say we've got beyond that. Artists have. At least, most of them have, apart from the Stuckists possibly..." (background sniggers). Indeed artists have got beyond that. Unfortunately a number of them have failed as yet to get beyond getting beyond that.

Time Out - "hopeless" 12.2.08
"Serota stoked up further animosity by allegedly rejecting work offered to the Tate both by Charles Saatchi, who was the major collector of young British artists (YBAs) at the time, and by their opponents, the frankly hopeless stuckists." Link. Sounds like the frankly hopeless Sarah Kent having her say again.

BBC1 Breakfast News 8.2.08. Charles Thomson discussed a ghastly sculpture in Holland Park. He took in his own sculpture, The Iraq War, which bore a distinct resemblance to a potato, and a portrait of Victoria Beckham which was to the untrained observer a squashed cardboard box.

London Talking, ITV London 22.1.08 Charles Thomson, Stuckist Co-founder, was on the show, discussing Banksy, with David Lee, Richard Cork and others.

Rebel magazine - least important in art Dec 2007 Rebel magazine's "Top 50 Least Important Art World Figures & Institutions". "Charles Thompson/The Stuckists" (sic) make it onto the list at number 2, narrowly being beaten by J.J. Charlesworth, the reviews editor of Art Review magazine, but way ahead of The Centre of Attention (8), Fiona Banner (10), Tim Marlow (a paltry 21), Normal Rosenthal (32), Banksy (33), David Lee of The Jackdaw (34), Michael Craig-Martin (35), Aesthetica magazine (37), Gavin Turk (48) and Julian Opie (50). As JJ himself said, "I’m glad that I’m apparently more less important than they are." The list is mentioned in The Guardian (last item) (28.12.07); more about it on artinfo.com and an interview with Rebel editors Harry Pye and Jasper Joffe by the delightful Ms Ana Finel Honigman on the Saatchi site. Buy The Rebel from the Tate gallery (Eh? - Ed.) (No, seriously.)

My Art Space - David Lee 16.11.07
David Lee excoriates the Stuckists in the same breath as the Turner Prize and Andy Goldsworthy. Link

The Sunday Times - Childish letter 11.11.07
Billy Childish letter on Stuckism, Gordon Brown & Tracey Emin in The Sunday Times. Link (bottom letter). Also in the Kent News (14.11.07)

Things magazine - John Bratby comparison 1.10.07
On the the work of John Bratby: "These paintings are almost Stuckist in their frustrated intensity." Link

The Guardian book - Letters to the Editor 2007
Charles Thomson and Billy Childish have letters in the book. Link.

The Guardian - Charles Thomson and Billy Childish letter on Damien Hirst 11.9.07
" It is encouraging that Damien Hirst (Report, September 8) has not only adopted our view of the Turner prize as "a media circus", where "Turner would be turning in his grave", but has even chosen to use the same phrases we have employed for the last eight years. We realise this is a creative act by Hirst, known as appropriation, which demonstrates yet again that he is ahead of the game." Link

BBC Radio 4 "Brain of Britain" 10.9.07
Question: "Largely a reaction to conceptual art, which movement was founded by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson in 1999 to promote new ideas in figurative painting?" They weren't actually brainy enough to get the answer, which was Stuckism, (one person suggested Modernism) but then they didn't get the answer about Damien Hirst's autobiography either. Question at 20:15. Repeated on Radio 4 (15.9.07)

The Times 27.8.07
John Ayto, editor of The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang, defines new words, including Stuckism, which was on the cover of Times 2 magazine. Link

The Saatchi Gallery 25.7.07
The Stuckists have a "universally perceived dodgy founder" says Ana Finel Honigman (left), Saatchi online magazine senior London correspondent, on the Saatchi site (25.7.07). Charles Thomson replies with
a blog entry and poem (25.9.07) The reply vanished twice (see webcitation.org here and here) but this turned out to be due to a wider technical fault, not censorship after all.

BBC Radio 5 Live, Simon Mayo show 12.7.07
Simon Mayo discusses the Ruralists group with Peter Blake.
Simon Mayo: So were you like the Stuckists. Was this a romantic version, a romantic vision of what art should be like? Peter Blake: The Stuckists have admitted that they based themselves a little bit on the Ruralists, but their anger is different. They're a different kind of group, but there was a link between the Stuckists and the Ruralists.
Time into programme: 2:09:07

The Times 27.6.07
Damien Hirst's skull and John Lekay's skull: The Times Also mentioned: Stuckist shark display.

The Daily Telegraph 1.6.07
Bill Gates for director of the Tate. Stuckists in Daily Telegraph Stuckism meets Microsoft - see Bryan Glick, editor's Diary on Computing (30.5.07), also Blueeyesphoto.com (1.6.07)

The Evening Standard 24.5.07
Stuckism is not Scientology - the Evening Standard (24.5.07) There was some confusion arising from a story in the South London Guardian that Stuckism is linked to Scientology. It isn't. Some Stuckist artists are exhibiting at the A Gallery, which is a normal commercial gallery. Its director, Fraser Kee Scott, is a Scientologist. That is his own personal affair, and nothing to do with the Stuckists. The following comment by Charles Thomson is from an interview by Fraser Kee Scott 26.6.08:
The background to this is that a story appeared in the South London Guardian, promoting a show at A Gallery, which included Stuckist artists. The story started by talking about L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology, next to which was one of Paul Harvey’s paintings. Paul is nothing to do with Scientology, and neither am I, nor the Stuckists, so we felt we had been misrepresented. We had agreed to exhibit at A Gallery on the basis that it functions as a normal commercial gallery. The Evening Standard phoned me up about this and I told them how I felt. After that, you informed me that was not what you intended with the story. You had talked about the show, and the journalist asked you about Scientology, but you didn’t realise it would be highlighted in that way. I accept there was misunderstanding and consider the matter resolved. We have continued to show at A Gallery and very successfully. For the record, I have always found you to be a very honest and principled person with a genuine passion for art.
Read the whole interview on the A Gallery site here.

BBC Radio 4, You and Yours 11.4.07
Charles Thomson, Stuckist co-founder, agrees with Lewis Biggs, ex boss of Tate Liverpool, who said, "I'm astonished to find myself in agreement with Charles Thomson." The agreement was that art had a value that was not just utilitarian or financial..
Hear the programme on Real Player (item at 26:00) or just the art item.

Louisville Eccentric Observer 3.4.07
Jeffrey Scott Holland (Mid Kentucky Stuckists) cover story. Link

BBC Radio 4, Front Row 19.3.07
Programme presenter, Mark Lawson, with David Jaffe, Senior Curator at the National Gallery in London, and cultural historian, Steven Biel, senior lecturer on history and literature at Harvard University, discussed the forthcoming Surrealism show at the V&A, and the general nature of isms. This is end of the conversation:
Steven Biel: I was just told that there's something in the UK called Stuckism, which I have to admit I wasn't aware of until a couple of days ago, but I looked them up on the web and they have a manifesto, so there is an ism out there. But one of the things about isms is that it can be fairly sectarian and maybe sometimes isms are only known to the ists, who are involved, rather than known to the larger public.
Mark Lawson: Sectarianism, as you didn't say. We can join that movement. But the Stuckists are a good example, who are in fact… They set themselves up in fact in opposition to Modernism in British art, so they're anti-Tracey Emin, they're anti-Damien Hirst. But they're a good example, because, as Stephen says, they have a manifesto. They're desperate to become an ism, but they've only really taken off among themselves.
David Jaffe: I'll have to confess that they haven't taken off for me yet.
Mark Lawson: You've never heard of the… well, you see this shows their problem, David. You've never heard of the Stuckists.
David Jaffe: But we're helping them, we hope. I mean, we do get a lot of people who like [not clear] paintings, so maybe they'll all join the Stuckists and there'll be a huge movement.
Steven Biel: There are 19 items on the 1999 Stuckist manifesto which I have in front of me, and I particularly like item 13: "Stuckism is anti-ism. Stuckism doesn't become an ism because Stuckism is not Stuckism. It is stuck."
[Well, at least we know what our problem is now - Ed.]

The New Yorker 19.3.07
Stuckist demo mentioned in article about the Turner Prize (p 81).

Contemporary Art Gallery 03.07.
"I feel - or maybe hope - that there will eventually be a return to painting and draughtsmanship. We have already seen signs of this in the Turner Prize, and in new art movements such as The Stuckists." - Peter London, editor Grafitti Magazine (now renamed Art in London) and director Gallery West-Eleven.Link

The Independent 15.2.07
Dan Belton letter on Manet. Link. Comment: hope springs blog (24.2.07)

Kylie Minogues show at V&A, BBC TV news 6.2.07
Charles Thomson was on BBC TV Breakfast News at 6.40am in a short interview, and at 8.20 am in a discussion, about the show of Kylie Minogue's stage costumes at the Victoria & Albert Museum on the topics of is it art and is it dumbing down? He said it wasn't art and nobody said it was, and that it was a good job it wasn't at the Tate because they think anything in the Tate is art by default. He approved of the show, but thought it highlighted concerns about dumbing down brought about by government pressure for attendance figures, as well as the bad example set by the Tate who had dumbed down with shows such as the slides by Kirsten Holler.
He was first quoted in The Times (5.2.07: "Everybody wants to get in on the act. It compromises integrity because the sway of glamour has overcome what used to be independent academic rigour. We have museums frozen like rabbits fixated in the headlights of celebrity culture. That said, I rather like Kylie Minogue so I may be tempted to go along.”
Other coverage (7.2.06) with his quote in New York Times, Yahoo news, China Daily, Today online (p2). See also Stuck Inn on 3am, "Kylie and Gina - a Tale of Two Ladies", part 1: Kylie.

REMODERNISM IN NORTH CAROLINA 28.1.07
"Montreat - local artist Clay Martin is heavily influenced by the “remodernism” of the Stuckist movement — an “anti-conceptual” reaction to postmodern conceptualism. Founder of the international online group of like-minded artists (www.remodernists.deviantart.com), Martin is showing his work at Montreat College’s Hamilton Gallery."
Ashville Citizen-Times

The Daily Telegraph 10.12.06
Nigel Farndale in The Telegraph defines "a Stuckist, one of those people who go around wrecking conceptual art." Link

The Scotsman 9.12.06
A Stuckist quote describes Martin "vomit" Creed's installation of a load of balls as "a load of balls". Link

The Independent 13.10.06
Trustee cronyism at National Portrait Gallery? Stuckist quote. Link

The Guardian 7.10.06
Article on the Frieze Art Fair says it is "A time ... for Stuckists to paint banners in opposition" Link

Tate acquisition prices 19.9.06
The Stuckists requested acquisition prices from the Tate in August last year under the Freedom of Information Act. This was declined and a 20,000 word appeal lodged in February this year. In July, Tate Chairman, Paul Myners, wrote to us that the prices would be made public after all. This has now happened.
Story with Stuckist quote in The Times (19.9.06), bloomberg.com and The Daily Mail (19.9.06)

Daily Mail 19.9.06
The Tate buys a hatstand for £400,857. Charles Thomson: "'Now we know why the Tate has been so reluctant to tell anyone how they're spending our money." Link

Art and Antiques Sept 06, p.32
In an article on the decay of Hirst's shark, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living: "A website (www.stuckism.com) is dedicated to debunking the aesthetic value of works like Hirst's shark."

The Independent: The Triumph of Stuckism symposium 14.4.06
"Charles Saatchi is about to become the latest victim of a critical mauling from the people of Liverpool. By way of a warm-up for 2008, when they take on the mantle of "European City of Culture", Mersey-side's finest academics are meeting to slag off the secretive collector. Liverpool John Moores University has announced plans for a two- day symposium on "the triumph of Stuckism". Dozens of art historians will use the event to study the Stuckists, a media-savvy group of artists who were formed to campaign gainst Saatchi and onceptual art." Link

The Guardian: Gnarls Barkley 14.4.06
Gnarls Barkley "is also, apparently, the lover of Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey, Kraftwerk's English teacher and the broker of a meeting between the Wu-Tang Clan and Britain's Turner prize-baiting Stuckist art movement." Link The origin of this notion was a press release concocted by Emerson Dameron, reproduced on the Atlantic Records site (click "bio"). It can also be seen on the Gnarls Barkley blog on MySpace 24.4.06. The original release reads, "So who is Gnarls Barkley? Diligent pen pal to Bangs, soul giant Isaac Hayes, and Violent Femmes ringleader Gordon Gano? Well-kept romantic consort to pop stars Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson? English teacher to synth-rock legends Kraftwerk? Croupier at a mysterious annual gathering in the Bay Area that allegedly draws members of the Wu-Tang Clan and Britian's Stuckist art collective?"

CNN: Return of painting 17.3.06
Charles Thomson on conceptual art: "Society today is obsessed with things like junk food, offering quick gratification. This is junk art which matches that" + other quotes. Link

The Daily Telegraph 7.2.06 David Roberts, new major collector buys Hirst, Emin and the Stuckists. Link

SAW poetry magazine publishes A Failing in My Head - poem about Sir Nicholas Serota Jan 06
Send submissions or order enquiries to Colin Shaddick, Editor SAW, 4 Masefield Avenue, Barnstaple, Devon EX31 1QJ. Website: sawpoet.blogspot.com Email: sawpoems@btinternet.com

The Evening Standard: Charles Thomson leaves Stuckism International Gallery 14.12.05
"Artist Charles Thomson, cofounder of the Stuckists anti- Turner Prize movement, has left the trendy environs of Shoreditch for suburban East Finchley. He has bought a three bedroom former workmen's cottage for Pounds 225,000 through Martyn Gerrard. "I'd grown tired of all that Shoreditch pseudo-trendiness," says Thomson." Link

The Guardian - Ivan Massow and Paul Myners 11.12.05 (ad feature)
Charles Thomson was asked to comment on "contemporary art". Excerpt: "Ivan Massow, when Chairman of the ICA, was not allowed to say conceptual art is 'tat'. On the other hand, Paul Myners, the current Chairman of the Tate, can pronounce an equally vehement opinion that "painting is the medium of yesterday", and no one blinks an eyelid. Why has he too not been pilloried for narrow-mindedness and forced to resign? Read the rest: Link

The Age: Childish, Emin, Stuckism (Australia) 4.12.05.
Billy Childish and context of Tracey Emin's insult which led to Stuckism. Link

BBC 14.9.05
h2g2 Guide Entry. Modern art is not rubbish. Tracey Emin is the example for, Stuckism is the example against. Link

Stuckism on BBC Radio 4 Round Britain quiz 30.4.05
Question 1, connect, please: A painter, who formerly had an Eminent friend; An architect who constructed a capital; A mountain which was the scene of a mass trespass. Why is this a juvenile question?
Listen to it here (on BBC player).
To hear on stand-alone Realplayer click here . (You can download a free version of Realplayer here )
Alternative viewing method: copy and paste this URL into Realplayer (click File, then Open) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/shows/rpms/radio4/rbq.ram

The Age (Melbourne) 16.4.05
"A beginners guide to the modern world: Stuckists." Scan

The Scotsman 7.1.05
"A cultured person is someone who appreciates Mozart and Radiohead, can argue a case for Tracey Emin or the Stuckists, and who understands what a metaphor is." Link

MATTHEW COLLINGS IN ART REVIEW ON STUCKISTS Dec 04
If you want to know exactly how the Stuckists are positioned in the current game of art stances, then Matthew Collings is the man:
"The drift in the art world for years has been to come up with pseudo-popular forms for formerly (that is, in the 1970s) genuinely elitist or obscure conceptual art contents. But you can't get it wrong - wrong popular is punished with sneers. (Grayson) Perry is right popular like Tracey Emin; both are victims of abuse, use text, do multi-styles and are willing to be embarrassing in a controlled context where the codes of the conceptual academy are confirmed. (The Stuckists are of course wrong popular: they do the fourth thing but only the first half of it.)"
Well, thank God for that.

STUCKIST COMMENT ON PHARMACY SALE 19.10.04
Stuckist comment on Damien Hirst's sale of items from failed restaurant Pharmacy in London.
"The Damien Hirst sale is the art equivalent of the housing boom of the '80s..... Prices for trivial knickknacks are inflated out of all proportion to their true worth.'' See Bloomberg.com

THE FUTURE Sept 04
The first issue of this magazine, edited by J.J. Charlesworth, contained an article, "Dead Painters' Society", on the Stuckists by Luke Heighton. A response to it is here.

STUCKISM IN LONELY PLANET LONDON 13.6.04
Stuckism International Gallery is given its own panel on page 47 of the current edition of the renowned guidebook Lonely Planet London, with a very clear write-up on the movement, apart from the minor point that Sean Hall is not actually a Stuckist - just an agent provocateur (not the lingerie shop by the way).

RANT MAGAZINE Spring 2004
Charles Thomson was interviewed in a two-page spread in the innovative Manchester arts and culture magazine (now defunct)

'NEW STATESMAN SEXED-UP QUIZ' 15.12.03
Arts Questions set by Rosie Millard, arts correspondent of the BBC 1.
What has prompted the first ever age restriction for a display at Tate Britain?
a Grayson Perry's satin dress
b Jake and Dinos Chapman's bronze blow-up dolls
c Tracey Emin's bath
d A retrospective of nudes by the Stuckists
Whole quiz here

THE INDEPENDENT (Louise Jury) 10.12.03
"`The Stuckists' are the most strident critics of the contemporary arts scene as dominated by conceptual artists like Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst and encouraged by the likes of Sir Nicholas Serota of the Tate and the collector Charles Saatchi. Charles Thomson, a founding Stuckist, said he believed we are living in a time which is the mirror image to the Victorian art establishment. "The Victorian values were moral, so now we have everything anti- moral. Victorians had beauty so we have to have ugliness and they had craft so we have to have anti-craft or rubbish, junk art," he said." Link

ARTSCAPE Nov 2003
"Stuckism presented a unified, coherent challenge to the prevailing BritArt orthodoxy. Its advantage lay in speaking the populist language of the ‘man in the street’ with catchy slogans and use of humour, while backing this up with a coherent philosophy written by established artists drawing on a detailed knowledge of art history and criticism."
- Jeremy Williams Artscape (Nov 2003) Stuckism article, pp. 9-10.

STUCKISM INTERVIEW ON ABC RADIO NATIONAL AUSTRALIA 21.8.03
Thursday 21 August (9.10 - 9.45pm time slot, Sydney time) The Deep End with Francis Leach
Interview with Stuckist Co-founder Charles Thomson (London)

THE TIMES - HIRST SHARK V STUCKIST SHARK 14.8.03
Damien Hirst accused of copying - again (well there's a surprise!) includes - was Stuckist shark the original? Read it in The Times

THE AGE (Melbourne): Sterlac's ear transplant 6.8.03
Body artist Sterlace plans to transplant an ear to his arm. UK Stuckists are reported to be virulently critical. Melbourne Stuckist, Nigel Stein, says: "Personally, I have been an admirer of Stelarc's work for about 10 years. I would be really interested in seeing the outcome." Link

THE TIMES: 'Traditionalists mount shark attack on Hirst' by Dalya Alberge 10.3.03
Article on the forthcoming Stuckism Gallery (London) show 'A Dead Shark Isn't Art' which will display a 325lb golden hammerhead shark caught by local electrician Eddie Saunders and displayed in his shop since 1989 - two years before the HIrst version. The show starts 17 April to coincide with the opening of the Saatchi Gallery on the South Bank.

TATE RECOMMENDS STUCKIST CRITIQUE 12.3.03
Two pages on the Tate Britain site headed 'Teach Yourself Turner Prize Criticism' quote Stuckist reactions, such as that Martin Creed's work (empty room, light going on and off) exuded 'outstanding stupidity'. If you don't believe us, read it here and here.

HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO STUCKISM 10.3.03
Not exactly, but extraordinarily Stuckism is mentioned in the new M.J. Simpson biography of sci-fi writer the late Douglas Adams 'Hitchhiker', due to Stuckist co-founder Charles Thomson being a class mate of Adams at Brentwood School in Essex in the sixties. There is even a photo of sixteen-year old Thomson.

PAUL HARVEY ON FRONT COVER OF THE CRACK 10.3.03
Paul Harvey, Newcastle Stuckist and guitarist of punk group Penetration, features on the front cover of The Crack (March 2003), the North-East entertainment guide, with his painting Carole Lesley. They say, "his extraordinary sense of colour and eye for fine composition remain just as intoxicating as ever."

CHANNEL M (TV) - MANCHESTER
GLOVES OFF progamme featured the Stuckist Tate clown demo last December, the Stuckism International Centre (London) and a studio debate including Stuckist Charles Thomson and Conceptualist Mike Dawson of Flux magazine. 2pm every day Mon 17 - Sun 23 Feb
Get Channel M with a normal aerial Info: tel 0161 211 2916, Email:info@channelm.co.uk

STUCKISTS ON THE AIRWAVES 10.2.03
Reme Noe and Lee Pearson of the Maidstone Stuckists were interviewed on BBC Newsroom South-East about their show in Chatham on 24 Jan. SP Howarth was on Sky News with Richard Littlejohn on 6 Feb, debating whether an 'artist' kicking an empty takeaway container down the High Street in Bedford should get a £12,000 grant. Charles Thomson was on Radio 5 Live, 'Late Night Curry' with Edwina Curry and conceptual artist Mike Dawson, talking about the same subject. Ella Guru did an off-air demo interview for Radio 5, just for the record.

BILLY CHILDISH SHUNS STUCKISTS Dec 02
"He has even gone so far as to shun the very art movement he was instrumental in founding - The Stuckists." - The Observer

SARAH KENT OF TIME OUT RANTS 7.8.02
Finally Sarah Kent has decided the Stuckists exist after all and does her worst reviewing the First Stuckist International at the Stuckism Centre London. She tries hard, but we do feel compelled to point out that Ella Guru did not paint "pussycats, ducks and swans". The pussycats were by Wolf Howard, in the next section of work and in a style which a random sample of visitors had no problem distinguishing from Ms Guru's. SP Howarth was most indignant to be told he "indulges in soft porn". His response published the following week in Time Out, said, "I am bemused at Sarah Kent's accusation (TO 1668, The Stuckists) that I indulge in soft porn in my work. It is quite obviously hard porn. She describes my painting as 'A boneless red blob masturbates whilst sniffing the crotch of a crude purple nude"' Where I come from, the usual practice is licking." Charles Thomson, who has condemned Britart, was taken aback to be told he "feigns hatred of contemporary art", especially when Patrick Caulfield was cited as an example. He says, "I have no problem acknowledging Caulfield as a precedent, but, as far as being influenced by "Michael Craig Martin, the man who taught many YBAs", I have only ever seen his work in the Tate. I am extremely impressed that Sarah Kent has realised that my style, which I developed in 1978, is indebted to his painting 'Knowing', which he did in 1996. Also, it's not 'puerile humour' - it's reality. A few weeks after I did the painting, Tracey Emin was shown on TV getting very angry about an installation because someone had substituted another pair of knickers for hers. Don't shoot the messenger. I don't ever recall saying that I considered the painting 'a serious weapon', so I don't know where she got that from. I just think it would be funny in a puerile way - if it weren't true. That makes it a bit sad." See the press cutting here.

IVAN MASSOW/STUCKISTS BBC NEWS SITE 21.1.01
In case you hadn't heard, Ivan Massow, Chairman of London's ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art), which is renowned for promoting the pretentious self-indulgent, craftless tat of conceptual art, has written an article in the New Statesman (21.1.01) condemning conceptual art as pretentious self-indulgent craftless tat. He also let drop en route that conceptual art's most noted UK proponent Tracey Emin couldn't "think her way out of a paper bag".

This has ruffled a few feathers, including, not surprisingly, Tracey Emin's, who called for him to resign. Sir Nicholas Serota who was also lambasted, declined to comment, which is his usual spirited stance on the wrong kind of artistic challenge.
Stuckist response | Post a comment | Report on Massow's comments | Guardian Report

STUDY OF TURNER PRIZE WITH STUCKISTS 4 October 2001
A study from the University of Glasgow looks at the history of the Turner Prize, and includes Stuckist clown demo and Real Turner Prize Show 2000. Check it out

STUCKISTS ARE THE CRITICS 4 October 2001
A press release from news agency Reuters says the Turner Prize is 'Condemned by critics as "an ongoing national joke."' That quote is actually from the Stuckists Turner Prize Manifesto.

RACHEL JORDAN'S VIRGIN DEBUT 25 September 2001
We are not implying that Rachel is a virgin, although for all we know she might well be, but she has been a regular exhibitor at Stuckist shows.

Particularly memorable was her 'Turnerprize Hotel' showing a gaudy pink and yellow Tate promoting '100 dirty beds/non-stop bland videos/dreary laundromat' which was first show in 'The Resignation of Sir Nicholas Serota' at Gallery 108.

The painting was recently reproduced in Virgin Trains magazine 'Hotline' as part of a feature on the Turner Prize.

Stuckist views are printed against the Prize ('what Turner did was paint pictures...'). Inevitably Charles Thomson's painting of Sir Nicholas with a large pair of red knickers is also reproduced. (Has he actually done any other work apart from this, we ask ourselves?)

ADVANCE NOTICE: LONDON RADIO 1-3AM MON 25 JUNE 18 June 2001
Charles Thomson has been invited to sit in with Tessa Dunlop on her LBC radio show in the early hours. Listeners will therefore be treated to that rare combination of brains and beauty (and Charles Thomson as well). You can also phone in yourself. Tune to 1152 AM (or medium wave as it used to be known).

4 May 2001
DON'T MISS THIS PROGRAMME! ARTVERTISING - CHANNEL 4 TV
3.55-4.25 am (note: AM) Friday 4 May On Charles Saatchi. Features the Stuckists and 'Art or Arse' song.

ART REBELS TAKE ON SMITH ON POLLING DAY 12 April 2001
That was the headline in the Evening Standard Londoner's Diary today. It announced that Stuckist co-founder Charles Thomson was to stand in the next General Election against Culture Secretary Chris Smith in the South Islington and Finsbury constituency.

Thomson alleges (although this is nothing new for readers of this site - or Jackdaw magazine) that there are "people on Arts Council panels awarding taxpayers money to galleries which display works of art by people on the panels".

He also challenges the Culture Secretary to a debate on such issues, which the government's failure to address is condemned as "another example of Labour sleeze".

THE BIG ISSUE: STUCKISTS V LOUISA BUCK (WHO'S SHE AGAIN?) 9 March 2001
The 5 February issue of The Big Issue (the magazine sold by the homeless, just in case anybody didn't know)kindly features a whole page on the Stuckists.

It includes a bold colour print of Ella Guru's 'Divine' which is rapidly becoming a Stuckist icon and is actually called 'The Long Island Iced Tea Party II' (the wrong title appearing in our book and not the fault of Big Issue, we hasten to add).

The article by Helen Sumpter is accurate, insightful, comprehensive and well worth getting. Order a back issue for a mere £1.50 from: http://www.bigissue.com/london/back.htm

Ah yes, that Louisa Buck makes an appearance as the mandatory other side of the argument. Here's what she has to say (our comments in square brackets): "The Tate isn't a seething mass of work by Hirst, Emin and Lucas [never said it was, although on a recent visit there were three Emin videos playing and not one work by, for example, Peter Blake on view]...

"I saw the last Stuckists exhibition and some of the work was just plain cack [so what exactly was the rest of it then? Some other kind of cack? Or maybe the rest of it was good? Who knows? Who's was the plain cack? Have some guts Louisa and name names: we promise to publish your analysis in full, so you can go down in art history as the person that called cack cack].

"There may be a lot of boring conceptual work [ah, we agree on something at least] but to have a grumpy [vivacious] reactionary [forward-thinking] movement against it is just daft." [Yes, of course it is - much better to stay bored, keep in with the in crowd and pocket the cash. (We hasten to add these comments are generalised observations and in no way allude to the person of Louisa Buck, who, as far as we know does not at all subscribe to such behaviour or attitudes)].

So what exactly can we find out about the character of the elusive Louisa and her take on the profundity of non-cack? "Never...", according to an article by her in ES (Evening Standard) magazine last year, has the following quotation from US Museum Director Thomas Hoving "seemed more apt". Here then is what art is all about: "Art is sexy! Art is money-sexy! Art is money-sexy-social-climbing-fantastic!"

STUCKISM 20TH CENTURY ART MOVEMENT - OFFICIAL! ALSO LOUISA BUCK (WHO'S SHE?) 3 March 2001
Wildldbrush's Art Today site lists some sixty 20th Century art movements, amongst which you will doubtless be relieved (and also impressed by Wildbrush's astuteness) that Stuckism takes its place, (albeit with some glaring typos in evidence). All the more odd then that Louisa Buck's recently revised book 'Moving Targets: a User's Guide to British Art now' fails to even mention the existence of Stuckism. Come on Louisa (wait for it - dreadful pun imminent) buck up. So click on Wildbrush and don't buy Louisa Buck's book (although it does mention Childish, so flick through it in the shop).

STUCKIST PANTS FOR LONDON DINNER PARTIES 2 March 2001
ES, the Evening Standard magazine, has featured the new Stuckist book on the page 'Something for the weekend' (a phrase traditionally followed by 'Sir?' as a barbers' code to enquire if a gentleman require a restock of condoms).

We are 'Something Pants' due to the inclusion of Charles Thomson's ubiquitous picture of Sir Nicholas Serota, Tate Gallery director with a pair of red knickers, which may or may not be a genuine Tracey Emin artwork.

Anyway, the write-up begins, "Brush up your dinner-party conversation by dipping into The Stuckists... " So that's what that lady in the £3000 Prada dress was doing at our show last November.

If you want to know what to say at the dinner party, the bon mot is "Stuckism is the backlash against the current Brit Art elite". You can follow it up with the origin of the name "Stuckism" which I'm really not going to go into again here.

If you want to be particularly radical, I suggest (and this wasn't in ES): "Well of course it's been obvious for some time that Brit Art has had its day."

STUCKISTS, ATTITUDE, TWO RANKIN NUDE HUNKS 1 March 2001
The Stuckists get a half page in March issue of gay mag 'Attitude' next to two Rankin photos of nude hunks. The ubiquitous Sir Nicholas Serota pops up again with his red knickers. Maybe the Tate Director is on his way to new status as a gay icon.

BOOK REVIEWED IN CREATIVE REVIEW 1 March 2001
Creative Review, slick magazine for designers and graphic artists, reviews The Stuckists book on page 88 (not page 92 as has been alleged) of the March issue. We are suitably honoured. They say, "There's a lot that's interesting here, including their comment that 'the Turner Prize effectively turns the Tate Gallery into a state-funded ad agency for Charles Saatchi, the Lisson Gallery and the White Cube Gallery' ...it's certainly provocative enough to get you talking."