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| THE STUCKISTS (est. 1999) "Your paintings are stuck, you are stuck! Stuck! Stuck! Stuck! -Tracey Emin |
Against conceptualism, hedonism and the cult of the ego–artist.
1. Stuckism is the quest for authenticity. By removing the mask of cleverness and
admitting where we are, the Stuckist allows him/herself uncensored expression.
2. Painting is the medium of self–discovery. It engages the person fully with a process of
action, emotion, thought and vision, revealing all of these with intimate and unforgiving
breadth and detail.
3. Stuckism proposes a model of art which is holistic. It is a meeting of the conscious and
unconscious, thought and emotion, spiritual and material, private and public. Modernism
is a school of fragmentation — one aspect of art is isolated and exaggerated to detriment of
the whole. This is a fundamental distortion of the human experience and perpetrates an
egocentric lie.
4. Artists who don't paint aren't artists.
5. Art that has to be in a gallery to be art isn't art.
6. The Stuckist paints pictures because painting pictures is what matters.
7. The Stuckist is not mesmerised by the glittering prizes, but is wholeheartedly
engaged in the process of painting. Success to the Stuckist is to get out of bed in the
morning and paint.
8. It is the Stuckist's duty to explore his/her neurosis and innocence through the making of
paintings and displaying them in public, thereby enriching society by giving shared form to
individual experience and an individual form to shared experience.
9. The Stuckist is not a career artist but rather an amateur (amare, Latin, to love) who
takes risks on the canvas rather than hiding behind ready–made objects (e.g. a dead
sheep). The amateur, far from being second to the professional, is at the forefront of
experimentation, unencumbered by the need to be seen as infallible. Leaps of human
endeavour are made by the intrepid individual, because he/she does not have to protect
their status. Unlike the professional, the Stuckist is not afraid to fail.
10. Painting is mysterious. It creates worlds within worlds, giving access to the unseen
psychological realities that we inhabit. The results are radically different from the materials
employed. An existing object (e.g. a dead sheep) blocks access to the inner world and can
only remain part of the physical world it inhabits, be it moorland or gallery. Ready–made
art is a polemic of materialism.
11. Post Modernism, in its adolescent attempt to ape the clever and witty in modern art,
has shown itself to be lost in a cul–de–sac of idiocy. What was once a searching and
provocative process (as Dadaism) has given way to trite cleverness for commercial
exploitation. The Stuckist calls for an art that is alive with all aspects of human
experience; dares to communicate its ideas in primeval pigment; and possibly experiences
itself as not at all clever!
12. Against the jingoism of Brit Art and the ego–artist. Stuckism is an international non–
movement.
13. Stuckism is anti 'ism'. Stuckism doesn't become an 'ism' because Stuckism is not
Stuckism, it is stuck!
14. Brit Art, in being sponsored by Saachis, main stream conservatism and the Labour
government, makes a mockery of its claim to be subversive or avant–garde.
15. The ego–artist's constant striving for public recognition results in a constant fear of
failure. The Stuckist risks failure wilfully and mindfully by daring to transmute his/her
ideas through the realms of painting. Whereas the ego–artist's fear of failure inevitably
brings about an underlying self–loathing, the failures that the Stuckist encounters engage
him/her in a deepening process which leads to the understanding of the futility of all
striving. The Stuckist doesn't strive — which is to avoid who and where you are — the
Stuckist engages with the moment.
16. The Stuckist gives up the laborious task of playing games of novelty, shock and
gimmick. The Stuckist neither looks backwards nor forwards but is engaged with the
study of the human condition. The Stuckists champion process over cleverness, realism
over abstraction, content over void, humour over wittiness and painting over smugness.
17. If it is the conceptualist's wish to always be clever, then it is the Stuckist's duty to
always be wrong.
18. The Stuckist is opposed to the sterility of the white wall gallery system and calls for
exhibitions to be held in homes and musty museums, with access to sofas, tables, chairs
and cups of tea. The surroundings in which art is experienced (rather than viewed) should
not be artificial and vacuous.
19. Crimes of education: instead of promoting the advancement of personal expression
through appropriate art processes and thereby enriching society, the art school system has
become a slick bureaucracy, whose primary motivation is financial. The Stuckists call for
an open policy of admission to all art schools based on the individual's work regardless of
his/her academic record, or so–called lack of it.
We further call for the policy of entrapping rich and untalented students from at home and
abroad to be halted forthwith.
We also demand that all college buildings be available for adult education and recreational
use of the indigenous population of the respective catchment area. If a school or college is
unable to offer benefits to the community it is guesting in, then it has no right to be
tolerated.
20. Stuckism embraces all that it denounces. We only denounce that which stops at the
starting point — Stuckism starts at the stopping point!
Billy Childish
Charles Thomson
4.8.99
1. Stuckism is the quest for authenticity. By removing the mask of cleverness and
admitting where we are, the Stuckist allows him/herself uncensored expression.
2. Painting is the medium of self–discovery. It engages the person fully with a process of
action, emotion, thought and vision, revealing all of these with intimate and unforgiving
breadth and detail.
3. Stuckism proposes a model of art which is holistic. It is a meeting of the conscious and
unconscious, thought and emotion, spiritual and material, private and public. Modernism
is a school of fragmentation — one aspect of art is isolated and exaggerated to detriment of
the whole. This is a fundamental distortion of the human experience and perpetrates an
egocentric lie.
4. Artists who don't paint aren't artists.
5. Art that has to be in a gallery to be art isn't art.
6. The Stuckist paints pictures because painting pictures is what matters.
7. The Stuckist is not mesmerised by the glittering prizes, but is wholeheartedly
engaged in the process of painting. Success to the Stuckist is to get out of bed in the
morning and paint.
8. It is the Stuckist's duty to explore his/her neurosis and innocence through the making of
paintings and displaying them in public, thereby enriching society by giving shared form to
individual experience and an individual form to shared experience.
9. The Stuckist is not a career artist but rather an amateur (amare, Latin, to love) who
takes risks on the canvas rather than hiding behind ready–made objects (e.g. a dead
sheep). The amateur, far from being second to the professional, is at the forefront of
experimentation, unencumbered by the need to be seen as infallible. Leaps of human
endeavour are made by the intrepid individual, because he/she does not have to protect
their status. Unlike the professional, the Stuckist is not afraid to fail.
10. Painting is mysterious. It creates worlds within worlds, giving access to the unseen
psychological realities that we inhabit. The results are radically different from the materials
employed. An existing object (e.g. a dead sheep) blocks access to the inner world and can
only remain part of the physical world it inhabits, be it moorland or gallery. Ready–made
art is a polemic of materialism.
11. Post Modernism, in its adolescent attempt to ape the clever and witty in modern art,
has shown itself to be lost in a cul–de–sac of idiocy. What was once a searching and
provocative process (as Dadaism) has given way to trite cleverness for commercial
exploitation. The Stuckist calls for an art that is alive with all aspects of human
experience; dares to communicate its ideas in primeval pigment; and possibly experiences
itself as not at all clever!
12. Against the jingoism of Brit Art and the ego–artist. Stuckism is an international non–
movement.
13. Stuckism is anti 'ism'. Stuckism doesn't become an 'ism' because Stuckism is not
Stuckism, it is stuck!
14. Brit Art, in being sponsored by Saachis, main stream conservatism and the Labour
government, makes a mockery of its claim to be subversive or avant–garde.
15. The ego–artist's constant striving for public recognition results in a constant fear of
failure. The Stuckist risks failure wilfully and mindfully by daring to transmute his/her
ideas through the realms of painting. Whereas the ego–artist's fear of failure inevitably
brings about an underlying self–loathing, the failures that the Stuckist encounters engage
him/her in a deepening process which leads to the understanding of the futility of all
striving. The Stuckist doesn't strive — which is to avoid who and where you are — the
Stuckist engages with the moment.
16. The Stuckist gives up the laborious task of playing games of novelty, shock and
gimmick. The Stuckist neither looks backwards nor forwards but is engaged with the
study of the human condition. The Stuckists champion process over cleverness, realism
over abstraction, content over void, humour over wittiness and painting over smugness.
17. If it is the conceptualist's wish to always be clever, then it is the Stuckist's duty to
always be wrong.
18. The Stuckist is opposed to the sterility of the white wall gallery system and calls for
exhibitions to be held in homes and musty museums, with access to sofas, tables, chairs
and cups of tea. The surroundings in which art is experienced (rather than viewed) should
not be artificial and vacuous.
19. Crimes of education: instead of promoting the advancement of personal expression
through appropriate art processes and thereby enriching society, the art school system has
become a slick bureaucracy, whose primary motivation is financial. The Stuckists call for
an open policy of admission to all art schools based on the individual's work regardless of
his/her academic record, or so–called lack of it.
We further call for the policy of entrapping rich and untalented students from at home and
abroad to be halted forthwith.
We also demand that all college buildings be available for adult education and recreational
use of the indigenous population of the respective catchment area. If a school or college is
unable to offer benefits to the community it is guesting in, then it has no right to be
tolerated.
20. Stuckism embraces all that it denounces. We only denounce that which stops at the
starting point — Stuckism starts at the stopping point!
Billy Childish
Charles Thomson
4.8.99
