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STUCKISM NEWS 1999

This page includes most of the Stuckism press coverage from 1999, along with some commentary.

INDEX OF 1999 NEWS ARTICLES:

Emin satellite of Medway poets(Getting it.com)(23 Nov 99)

Stuckism at South Bank University(19 Nov 99)

'Sky' mag promotes Stuckism for 2000(11 Nov 99)

Stuckism on Virgin Atlantic(11 Nov 99)

Wohin soll das führen? - Jungewelt (6 Nov 99)

Malerei als Risiko auf der Leinwand - Die Welt (27 Oct 99)

Emin Tate bed protest `Anti-Stuckism'(25 Oct 99)

Charles Thomson on Newsnight BBC2 (19 Oct 99)

Art attack - Sunday Times (16 Oct 99)

Ham & High on Stuckism (08 Oct 99)

Billy Chilish in the Scotsman (29 Sep 99)

CNN worldwide broadcast (23 Sep 99)

Stuck on the tube! (20 Sep 99)

BBC Radio 4 'Today' (18 Sep 99)

STUCK! STUCK! STUCK! private view (17 Sep 99)

Evening Standard Hot Tickets (17 Sep 99)

LWT Nightlife (16 Sep 99)

Billy Childish in Guardian (14 Sep 99)

Highbury & Islington Express (27 Aug 99)

Rebels get stuck into the Brit artists - The Times (26 Aug 99)

Sunday Times Culture Magazine (01 Aug 99)

Evening Standard (23 July 99)

   

23 November 1999:

EMIN SATELLITE OF MEDWAY POETS

At last some more of the true background of the Stuckist/Tracey Emin connection is making it into the public domain.

An article in Getting It (US web magazine) by Iain Aitch mentions Tracey Emin's origin as a 'satellite of the Medway Poets', the group which 15 years later is the core of the Stuckist group.

Read the entire article.

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19 November 1999:

STUCKISM AT SOUTH BANK UNIVERSITY

The first talk by a Stuckist on Stuckism at a British academic institution took place on Thursday 18 November, with a lecture by Charles Thomson at South Bank University, London. The talk was scheduled for one hour, but most students opted to stay on for two hours. Interest was considerable - particularly in the context of ongoing Turner Prize debate - and questioning was intelligently thorough.

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11 November 1999:

'SKY' MAG PROMOTES STUCKISM FOR 2000

A special CD-size supplement `99 4 2000 The next millenium now' in the December issue of Sky magazine presents "a sneak preview of what'll be big, cool or talked about next year" in a list of 99 items.

The only artists who seem to qualify are a new entry at number 94, to whit: Stuckists. Here's what it says:

"Pickled sheep and sharks? Yawn. Now old skool art sensationalists like Damien Hirst and Chris Ofili are the new establishment, there's no shortage of bright, young replacements. Leading the pack are the Stuckists, founded by Charles Thomson and Tracey Emin's ex-fella Billy Childish. And they're using paint, not vinegar."

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11 November 1999:

STUCKISM ON VIRGIN ATLANTIC

The Virgin Atlantic in-flight magazine 'Hotair' (Oct-Dec 99) contains an article "Zone Art Head Turner" about Turner Prize nominee,Tracey Emin, by notable columnist Chrissy Iley. It contains the following passage:

"Introducing the Stuckists

"You know you have made it as an artist when an entire school of art is formed in reaction against you, which may or may not be a comfort to Tracey Emin when she ponders the bizarre emergence of the Stuckist movement. Formed by the aptly named Billy Childish, whose infantile paintings inspired Emin to dismiss his work as "stuck, stuck, stuck", the fact that he is a former lover of Emin's (intriguingly, both Childish and his mother are features in Emin's infamous installation 'Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995'), might have something to do with his crusade against her. But there is a serious point to all this: Chidish and the other like-minded artists who form the Stuckists - most notably Charles Thomson- are fundamentally opposed to the way that Brit Art favours the conceptual over all aesthetic considerations. "Brit Shit", as they refer to the work of Emin and her cohorts, has become all shock and no value. Although quite how Childish's naive portraits redress the balance is another matter entirely. The Stuckist website can be found at: http://victorian.fortunecity.com/churchmews/120"

(Please note web site is now: www.stuckism.com)

Thanks for the notification of the article by Raffaella Camera currently resident in Santa Monica and destined one day to become a star.

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06 November 1999:

Wohin soll das führen?
Jungewelt (06 Nov 99)
Read the article in German, including a German translation of the Stuckist Manifesto. English translation of article coming soon.

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27 October 1999:

Malerei als Risiko auf der Leinwand

(Full text in German. Translation coming soon.)

by Barbara Schürenberg, - Die Welt

Kunstmogul Charles Saatchi wird mittlerweile von allen Seiten angeschossen. Nicht nur, dass die soeben in seiner Galerie er–ffnete Ausstellung "Neurotischer Realismus" von den Kritikern fast einhellig als Etikettenschwindel abgetan wird, zu allem Überfluss hat sich nun auch noch die K¸nstlergruppe "The Stuckists" etabliert, deren erkl”rtes Ziel es ist, die von Saatchi so vehement propagierte "Britart" lediglich als zynisch kalkuliertes Marketing zu entlarven.

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25 October 1999:

EMIN TATE BED PROTEST `ANTI-STUCKISM'

Only two newspapers reported a curious detail of the Tracey Emin bed romp 'performance' by two Chinese 'artists'.

Sam Wallace writing in The Daily Telegraph (25 Oct) commented on one of the participants:

"Mr Cai... had words such as 'Communism', 'Anti-Stuckism', 'Freedom', 'Idealism' and 'Internationalism' written on his body in Chinese as well as English."

This was however trumped by Fiachra Gibbons, Arts Correspondent of The Guardian, who wrote:

"The Battle of the Bed may have been all over in a few minutes but it will go down in art history as the defining moment of the new and previously unheard of Anti-Stuckist Movement. That much can be discerned from the slogans scrawled on JJ Xi and Yuan Chai's bodies."

Also in the latter report was a splendid photo of Mr Chai leaping across the bed with arms outstretched and the slogan 'ANTI-STUCKISM' clearly written the length of his torso.

Mr Chai is also an ex-student of Maidstone College of Art, along with Tracey Emin and Stuckists Charles Thomson and Charles Williams.

For those who missed the news, Mr Chai and Mr Xi, staged an event by jumping on Turner Prize Nominee Tracey Emin's exhibition in the Tate Gallery of her (unmade and unwashed) bed and had a pillow fight.

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19 October 1999:

NEWSNIGHT BBC2

Charles Thomson, Jeremy Paxman and artist Brad Lochore debated art, Stuckism and (sorry about this, but it can't unfortunately be avoided) Tracey Emin's dirty knickers on the opening night of this year's Turner Prize exhibition.

High moments of the item included Mr Lochore's assertion that Mr Thomson's shoe could be art (shoe enters picture from bottom right). Mr Thomson expostulated (that is the right description) that he had never heard anything so ludicrous in his life - which is not perhaps strictly true, but it did make the point.

Mr Lochore also stated that the Turner exhibits were indisputably art. Mr Thomson said with impeccable logic that it was not indisputably art, because he was disputing it.

Mr Lochore praised a plastic bottle on a cardboard plinth (made by a friend). He found the bottle sexy. Mr Thomson did not find it at all sexy; he found it to be a plastic bottle.

Paintings by Ella Guru (man's head with blond beehive wig), Frances Castle (blue 'bunny rabbit' with face), Philip Absolon (skeletons), Wolf Howard (cat and dog underwater) and Charles Thomson (version of Gainsborough) were on display through the programme.

Mr Paxman displayed some caution in taking Stuckism as not a joke. Mr Thomson said the joke was that (sorry again) dirty knickers were on display in the Tate Gallery, and that it was incredible that to question this was seen in a suspect light and that Stuckism was certainly not a joke (and it certainly isn't).

Mr Lochore is about to become a father imminently and we at Stuckism wish him all the best with his new child. All the participants agreed (off air) that such an event does put the matter of art into its proper perspective.

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October 16 1999
This letter is reproduced from The Times (16 October) and is in reply to an article about Tracey Emin published in The Times (2 October). (The writer of the letter is not a member of the Stuckist Group.)

"ART ATTACK

I read with interest your article about Tracey Emin (The Madness of Queen Tracey, October 2), especially the comments made about her time at Maidstone College of Art.

I was a student at the college with Tracey and although she did a lot for the college and students in the capacity of social secretary, she certainly was not a "local legend" as depicted by your article.

Most of us there considered her to be a very vocal publicist, not only for college events, but for the Medway Poets and, principally, Billy Childish (she was his girlfriend at the time). Being a small, provincial college, everybody knew everybody else and, apart from her loud announcing voice, she was no more distinctive than any other student. If any one was a "living legend" it was Childish.

Concerning the beginning of her "personal and artistic stance", Tracey's work at the time was very derivative of Childish's visual art and writing. She appeared to walk not only in his shadow, but in those of other Medway Poets, that derivation still echoing in her current work.

I have fond memories of Tracey (I must add not so fond as to appear in her tent) and her encouragement of my own writing, but I would like to put a halt to the revisionism of that time and to make sure that the people who were important do not get swept away by the media Frankenstein that is being created around Tracey.

Yours faithfully

Steve Coots
Writer and tutor of Creative Writing at Canterbury University
67 London Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN1 1DT"

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08 October 1999:

Ham & High on Stuckism (8 Oct 99)

"Whether you like the work or not is hardly the question: it somehow rings true..."(more)

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29 September 1999:

A concept-free zone - interview with Billy Childish in The Scotsman

BILLY Childish is stuck. Stuck in the past, stuck in his paintings, stuck in his poems. He won't mind me saying this; he says it himself.... (continue...)

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23 September 1999:

CNN WORLDWIDE BROADCAST

A feature on Stuckism filmed during the hanging and private view of the Gallery 108 show will be broadcast worldwide this weekend by CNN. Viewing figures are around 200,000,000 (yes, that is two hundred million) in over 200 countries.

The following times are a guideline only and for CNN International (received in hotels). CNN Domestic times (i.e. home cable) may vary slightly. Check your TV guide or contact local CNN office for details. The program is called "Art TV".

UK
9.30pm Sat 25 Sept
7.30am Sun 26 Sept
3.30am Mon 27 Sept
4.30pm Mon 27 Sept

EUROPE
Add 1 hour to UK times.

US - ATLANTA TIME
1.30pm Sat 25 Sept
8.30am Sun 26 Sept
1.30pm Sun 26 Sept
10.30pm Sun 26 Sept

ASIA & PACIFIC
8.30am Sat 25 Sept
9.30pm Sat 25 Sept
7.30am Sun 26 Sept
4.30pm Sun 26 Sept
9.30am Mon 27 Sept
9.30pm Wed 29 Sept

LATIN AMERICA - BUENOS AIRES TIME
2.30pm Sat 25 Sept
9.30am Sun 26 Sept
2.30pm Sun 26 Sept
9.30am Mon 27 Sept
8.30pm Mon 27 Sept

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20 September 1999:

STUCK ON THE TUBE!

Metro, the free London newspaper available at stations for morning commuters has a quarter-page item on Stuckism (20.9.99).

Most of this is a full-colour reproduction of Charles Williams' painting 'Home From the Abbatoir' currently on display at Gallery 108.

Excerpts from the text by Nina Caplan:

"There is nothing new under the sun - no, Damien, not even pickled sheep. Art traditionally gets round this by jumping up and down and screaming with outrage at whatever the latest trend is, before dedicating itself to the exact opposite, and the Stuckists are nothing if not traditional."

"The Stuckists... are self-consciously traditional and gimmick-free."

"The anti-gimmick stance would look more convincing if the group weren't named after Emin's words but there's no denying that the Stuckists have a case."

Nor is there any denying that Nina Caplan has a case. However, there are two parts to the Stuckist operation. The first is simply the painting which has been going on for twenty years or more in some cases, and will carry on come what may.

The second is the need to get this work a platform in a climate which has been monopolised by those who marginalise it (particularly the kind of painting done by Stuckists - which is actually concerned with painting pictures rather than painting paintings of paint).

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18 September 1999:

BBC RADIO 4 'TODAY'

Charles Thomson, Stuckist co-founder, and Richard Cork, Art Critic for The Times took part in a short live discussion at 8.20 am on the prestigious 'Today' programme.

Mr Thomson explained briefly the thrust of Stuckism. Mr Cork responded that he was alarmed that major artists of Brit Art were being so lightly dismissed.

Mr Thomson commented he saw their work as being light, and that some Stuckists had spent ten years or more in isolation at home on their painting because it had that degree of meaning for them, whereas he could not imagine someone finding equivalent meaning from spending ten years at home pickling dead sheep.

Mr Cork had not actually seen the Stuckist show as he had been in Liverpool judging an art competition, but he promised to visit during the week.

Mr Thomson gave an example of the 'art' that Stuckism opposes as Turner Prize Nominee Tracey Emin's latest gimmick which is:
'pissing on a blanket'
Presenter: 'We don't like that word'
(presumably meaning 'pissing' rather than 'blanket')
Mr Thomson: 'It was on BBC 2'

Mr Cork, as critic, was given the last word and said again that he had just been judging paintings and that painting was alive and well anyway.

(Mr Thomson would like to point out here that it's not just any old painting for the sake of it that Stuckism advocates, but paintings based on particular principles and inner relevance - please do read the Manifesto; it took a lot of work to compile)..

Later on in the 'Today' programme, an apology was broadcast for any listeners who may have been upset by the bad language (Brit Art?).

We hope to include excerpts from the transcript in due course.

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17 September 1999:

STUCK! STUCK! STUCK! PRIVATE VIEW

The first Stuckist exhibition is now open and, to those in the know,it is obvious that the conceptual tat of Brit Art has been rendered obsolete overnight. No doubt the dinosaur will lumber on for a while yet. After all, there is a lot of capital and delusion invested in it.

The Stuckist paintings come across with a life, inventiveness, variety and colour that justifies all the anticipation - and they're selling as well, which we are not displeased about.

The Private View itself (Thu 16 Sept) was a wonderful evening. 700-800 people turned up. There was an atmosphere of fun with a sense of significance for a new beginning in contemporary art.

CNN and LWT both had camera crews, who were wonderfully unobtrusive but managing to capture the bustle of it all and doing interviews. Mr Barry Taleghany of the Arts Club was observed giving his considered opinion, while Ms Suzie Bumstead fled in panic as soon as a lens was pointed in her direction.

It was good also to meet some people who had emailed us after seeing the web site - including Helen Roach and friends who had endured three years at Falmouth College of Art.

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17 September 1999:

HOT TICKETS: STUCK! STUCK! STUCK! the first Stuckist exhibition has been chosen by Helen Sumpter for Galleries Choice (p46 Evening Standard Hot Tickets,17-23 September), along with Cornelia Parker, Jason Martin and Neurotic Realism:Part Two.

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16 September 1999:

LWT NIGHTLIFE: Lucy Leveugle and Paul from The Lab LWT were at Gallery 108 during the Stuckist exhibition hanging and the next evening for the private view.

The result should be broadcast on LWT Nightlife programme (11.30-12.30 pm) Friday 24 September.

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14 September 1999:

"He has written 30 poetry books, made 80 albums and nearly 2,000 paintings. But he's best known as Tracey Emin's strange ex-boyfriend"
Interview with Billy Childish in the Guardian.

08 September 1999:

Charles Williams writes an Artist's Diary in September issue of Art Review. Stuckism is conspicuously absent - it's all happened since the copy deadline.

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27 August 1999:

"Frances Castle: a Painter on a Rescue Mission" in the Highbury and Islington Express, talking Stuckism and preparing for her exhibition next week.

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26 August 1999:

'Rebels get stuck into the Brit artists' Feature in The Times, page 7, Thu 26 Aug 1999.

ERRATUM, LAST TWELVE LINES OF FEATURE:

The Stuckist exhibition is NOT from next Tues (31 Aug). This is the private view night for a preceding exhibition (which happens to feature Stuckist artist Frances Castle).

The Stuckist exhibition is from Friday 17- Thursday 30 September, private view 6-9pm Thursday 16 September.

The correct address of the gallery is: Gallery 108, 108 Leonard Street, EC2A 4XS (Tel: 0171 729 9108).

Joe Crompton is not a Stuckist artist. He is the proprietor of Gallery 108, and a very decent chap too.

The quote 'She'll probably win...' is by Charles Thomson, not Billy Childish as stated. Billy has said a lot of things, but that wasn't one of them. The original quote ended: 'the sort of thing she's doing - Brit Shit Art'. The latter three words have been quite properly omitted.

22 August 1999:

WOLF HOWARD'S and CHARLES WILLIAMS' paintings now online.

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21 August 1999:

TRACEY EMIN

Some people have seen Tracey Emin's name on the home page and asked us who she is and is she a Stuckist and what is her connection with Stuckism. Well, no she is not a Stuckist, But to quote Billy Childish if she 'pulls her socks up' there is hope for her yet. Some additional information is included in ORIGINS OF STUCKISM.

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Sunday 1 August 1999: Sunday Times Culture supplement announces Stuckism's crusade against Brit Art (cover right) with two page article.

 

 

 

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23 July 1999. Evening Standard, p12:

"Stuck in her ways": "The backlash has begun against the Turner-prize nominee Tracey Emin, who once famously filled a tent with the names of all the men she had slept with and declared it a work of art. Her ex-boyfriend Billy Childish and some of her contemporaries from Maidstone College of Art have started their own neo-conservative movement called Stuckism.

'The name comes from Tracey's evaluation of Billy's 1,500 paintings over a 15-year period which was "His paintings are stuck stuck stuck. He is stuck." Says Charles Thompson, a fellow Stuckist. 'We are opposed to pop art, Brit art, minimalism, conceptualism, installation art, video art, dead animal art and tent art. We are happy to be radical and modern in our subject matter, so long as it is painted using conservative techniques. These days we are the ones who are anti-establishment.'"

July 1999: Website launched.