In 1999 Billy Childish's then girlfriend Tracey Emin insulted his art as 'stuck, stuck, stuck.' She's not his girlfriend any more, and the art movement which took their name from her accusation has got its first major exhibition, The Stuckists - Punk Victorian at The Walker. Saw it today. It's bright, brash, provocative and quite good fun. The Stuckists stand for 'contemporary figurative painting with ideas'. And the walls of the Walker are full of them. I won't go on, you can see some of the pics and read more at the various links.
But I did especially enjoy the wall devoted to The Stuckists' project to revile The Turner Prize. They oppose conceptual art, mainly because of what they regard as its lack of concepts. Stuckist co-founder Charles Thomson, who has 'spent most of the last five years promoting Stuckism, organising anti-Turner Prize clown protests and being accosted by Sir Nicholas Serota in Trafalgar Square', displays two of the finest examples of their protest art. One, in the typographical style of Emin, is a very colourful piece entitled, Is My Shoe Art?, on which the text reads something like,
IS MY SHOE ART?
IF YOU SAY THAT IT IS
THAT IS THE MOST RIDICULOUS STATEMENT I HAVE HEARD IN MY LIFE
And the other speaks for itself. It is entitled, Sir Nicholas Serota Makes an Acquisitions Decision ...
john davies
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