Formation | 3 August 1999 |
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Location |
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Membership
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233 groups |
Founders
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Billy Childish Charles Thomson Charles Williams |
Members
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Philip Absolon, Eamon Everall, Ella Guru, Bill Lewis, Joe Machine, Elsa Dax, Guy Denning, Michael Dickinson, Robert Janás, Odysseus Yakoumakis, John Bourne, Mark D, Paul Harvey, Stephen Howarth, Alexis Hunter, Abby Jackson, Naive John, Rachel Jordan, Jane Kelly, Peter McArdle, Mandy McCartin, Peter Murphy, Rémy Noë, Udaiyan, Peggy Clydesdale, Jeffrey Scott Holland, Tony Juliano, Frank Kozik, Terry Marks, Nicholas Watson, Godfrey Blow, Asim Butt, Mike Mayhew, Regan Tamanui, Jonathon Coudrille |
Website | stuckism |
Stuckism is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting as opposed to conceptual art. By July 2012 the initial group of 13 British artists had expanded to 233 groups in 52 countries.
Childish and Thomson have issued several manifestos. The first one was The Stuckists, consisting of 20 points starting with "Stuckism is a quest for authenticity".Remodernism, the other well-known manifesto of the movement, is a criticism of postmodernism; it aims to get back to the true spirit of modernism, to produce art with spiritual value regardless of style, subject matter or medium. In another manifesto they define themselves as anti-anti-art which is against anti-art and for art.
After exhibiting in small galleries in Shoreditch, London, the Stuckists' first show in a major public museum was held in 2004 at the Walker Art Gallery, as part of the Liverpool Biennial. The group has demonstrated annually at Tate Britain against the Turner Prize since 2000, sometimes dressed in clown costumes. They have also come out in opposition to the Charles Saatchi-patronised Young British Artists.
Although painting is the dominant artistic form of Stuckism, artists using other media such as photography, sculpture, film and collage have also joined, and share the Stuckist opposition to conceptualism and ego-art.
The name "Stuckism" was coined in January 1999 by Charles Thomson in response to a poem read to him several times by Billy Childish. In it, Childish recites that his former girlfriend, Tracey Emin had said he was "stuck! stuck! stuck!" with his art, poetry and music. Later that month, Thomson approached Childish with a view to co-founding an art group called Stuckism, which Childish agreed to, on the basis that Thomson would do the work for the group, as Childish already had a full schedule.