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TATE
REJECTS DONATION OF STUCKIST PAINTINGS IN SECRET DECISION
On
14 February 2005 Sir Nicholas Serota replied to the offer of
a donation of 160 Stuckist paintings that had been exhibited
by a national museum, The Walker Gallery, as a major show for
the 2004 Liverpool Biennial, and said that this offer would
be put to the trustees to secure a response.
On 22 July 2005 he wrote to reject the offer, saying that "the
works in question have been reviewed by our curators and presented
to the Board of Trustees,"
and commenting, "We do not feel that the work is of sufficient
quality in terms of accomplishment, innovation or originality
of thought to warrant preservation in perpetuity in the national
collection."
The
minutes of the July meeting of the Trustees are on the Tate
website. There is no mention of the offer or any curators' report,
and no record that any decision at all was taken on this offer
by the Trustees. This is yet another example of the secrecy
in which the Tate conducts its business with a distinct lack
of openness (which Tate Chairman Paul Myners has called "corruption").
Even
work acquired is hidden in anonymity:
10 Acquisitions for Decision
(agenda item 12) The Trustees approved the proposed acquisition.
What
was this proposed acquisition that was approved? The public
are not told, but this is a public body spending public money
on work for the public, which the Tate is failing in its duty
to keep informed.
The
Tate states, "The Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery
is required to follow the principles established by the Nolan
Committee in the conduct of public bodies." One of these
is:
"Openness
- Holders of public office should be as open as possible about
all the decisions and actions that they take. They should
give reasons for their decisions and restrict information
only when the wider public interest clearly demands."
Tate
Trustees July minutes online on this site
here, on Tate site as pdf here
Nolan Committee Seven Principles of
Public Life here
"Painting
is the medium of yesterday"
- according to Paul Myners CBE, Chairman of the Tate,
Acting Chairman of Marks and Spencer, Chairman of Aspen Insurance
and Guardian Media Group, member of the Court of Directors of
the Bank of England, Non-Executive Director of the Bank of New
York (photo
here).
Paul Myners was elected Tate Chairman in 2004 on 1 April. The
Tate trustees are responsible for deciding on acquisitions (see
Ofili trustee scandal here).
28
July 2005
From The Times:
"TATE
REJECTS £500,000 GIFT FROM 'UNORIGINAL' STUCKISTS
By
Dalya Alberge, Arts Correspondent
The Tate was accused yesterday of snubbing one of Britain’s foremost
collections after it rejected a gift of 160 paintings that had been given pride
of place at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.
Its director, Sir Nicholas Serota, said that the works did not deserve to be in
a national collection, even though their five-month exhibition last autumn drew
thousands of people to the Walker, one of the outstanding collections of fine
art in Europe and part of National Museums Liverpool." 300.jpg) Whole
story in The Times here
Walker
show info here
Some
of the rejected paintings here
List of paintings rejected (Excel doc) here
To find out what the Tate does think worth acquiring click
here for its list of new work in the collection. The first
artwork, by Jennifer Allora, consists of: metal coathangers,
ham radio transmitter, aerial.
An
example of how the Tate represents painting
here
"If you didn't think the Tate was woefully out of touch the news this
week that it rejected a gift of 160 paintings by the Stuckists..... makes it painfully
clear." -Nate Lippens, Seattle blogsite www.thestranger.com
"...all
that representational crap is just too boring and unoriginal
to be worth collecting, even when given away for free, but
canned feces? Pure genius, clearly worth 40
times its weight in gold!" -
foreigndispatches.typepad.com
The
Tate's rejection of the Stuckist donation of 160 paintings appears 21 Aug 2005
in The Sunday Times magazine's cover story Wonder Walls on Tate
Britain's rehang here
Story also covered by: www.independent.co.uk,
www.artnet.com,
www.artsjournal.com,
www.artshole.co.uk,
www.guardian.co.uk,
www.irishart.com,
www.artcyclopedia.com,
home.iprimus.com.au,
Ohio
State University (28.7.05), www.artshub.com,
majorityrights.com
(30.7.05), Europe
Media Monitor, Wikipedia
Blogs on www.thestranger.com,
www.theperfectworld.us,
www.thenonist.com,
University
of Michigan, www.newmusicbox.org,
overease.blogspot.com, http://blakkbyrd.blogspot.com,
Read Mark Vallen's Art for a Change blog here
Discussion on http://foreigndispatches.typepad.com
In Russian art
info Russia,
Interview and debate on BBC Radio
5 Live. Reported in The Week magazine (5.8.05).
Picture
above adapted from "Sir
Nicholas Serota Makes an Acquisitions Decision" by
Charles Thomson
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