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STUCKISM
CHARLES THOMSON
(Co-founder of the Stuckists)

INTRODUCTION

Introduction Text Paintings

 

Charles Thomson instigated the Stuckist movement in 1999. He has been the driving force behind it and responsible for most of its media coverage. He has led demonstrations against the Turner Prize for seven years, stood as a Stuckist for parliament, reported Charles Saatchi to the Office of Fair Trading, and run a Stuckist gallery (left). Previously he was a member of the Medway Poets (1979) and a full-time poet for over a decade. He was briefly married to the artist Stella Vine. He now lives in North London.

Charles Thomson's best known work (left) is a satire of Sir Nicholas Serota, Director of the Tate gallery, and Tracey Emin, with whom he was friends in the 1980s. He paints in flat areas of mostly high key colour with black outlines, and sees the influence for this from Japanese woodblock prints, Van Gogh and German Expressionism. Subjects are mainly people and situations in his everyday life, but transformed to show "a synthesis of the material, mental, emotional and spiritual." He has observed the paintings often have alternate readings, and that his painting of Serota is satirical on a superficial level, but on a deeper one is asking a serious question, with which he was himself concerned at the time.

For CV, statement and links, click "Text" above.
For an index of thumbnail images, click "Paintings".

Charles Thomson from the DVD Stuckism: It's a Dirty Job
More videos here.

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