Sir Nicholas Serota's reply

An Open Letter to Sir Nicholas Serota and a new document Remodernism were sent to Sir Nicholas Serota in February 2000 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson with the invitation "We will be pleased to receive any comments you might care to make".

Sir Nicholas replied promptly and with the following (signed) statement:

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'.

Charles Thomson commented:

"We were actually very surprised, as we thought that a director of a national art gallery would have plenty of comments to make and lots of ideas on art - we were addressing fundamental issues and values in the material sent to him.

"He needs to make a better response to the viewpoint we expressed as it probably represents what 99% of the population thinks - namely that conceptual art is severely deficient artistically and painting is the true means of art.

"He is after all employed with public money in order to run a gallery for the public. Yet he acts as if he has no accountability to anyone apart from himself and a like-minded elite."