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, The Stuckists Punk Victorian was the first national gallery exhibition of Stuckist art. It was held at the Walker Art Gallery and Lady Lever Art Gallery in Liverpool from September 18 2004 to February 20 2005 , and was part of the 2004 Liverpool Biennial . It comprised more than 250 paintings by 37 artists, mostly from the UK but also with a representation of international Stuckist artists from the US, Germany and Australia. There was also a smaller accompanying exhibition of Stuckist Photographers . A book, ''The Stuckists Punk Victorian'', was published to accompany the exhibition. SHOW The main show was in a large gallery at the Walker which normally houses works from the contemporary collection. The paintings were hung in a manner akin to the "salon" style, using the whole height of the wall. "Founder and featured artists" were each given their own space, while representative works from other UK and international artists were grouped accordingly. There was also a free-standing display of work which satirised the Tate Gallery and the Turner Prize . A separate smaller show at the Lady Lever Gallery concentrated on the theme of "Art and Artists", including Stuckist interpretations of past work by artists such as Thomas Gainsborough , Frans Hals and Georges Seurat . Here also was the first exhibition by Stuckist photographers. The Gallery posted a notice: :VISITOR NOTICE: THE STUCKISTS PUNK VICTORIAN :Stuckist artists believe in "honest and uncensored expression". Their wide range of subject matter includes themes of a sexual and violent nature. Some of the images in this exhibition may not be suitable for children. Walker Art Gallery website Retrieved March 26, 2006 BOOK A 144-page book was published by National Museums Liverpool to accompany the show with 150 colour illustrations, including work by all the artists, as well as photographs showing the history of the group. A photo from 1987 shows some of the group members in an earlier form as The Medway Poets , at which time Tracey Emin was associated with them. Other photos are of demonstrations outside the Turner Prize , two artists ( Ella Guru and Sexton Ming ) getting married in drag, and Stella Vine in the ''Vote Stuckist'' show in 2001. The book also includes two Stuckist manifestos, biographies of the artists, a section on Stuckist photographers, and two essays, "A Stuckist on Stuckism" by group co-founder, Charles Thomson and "Manifestos From the Edge and Beyond" by art historian Paul O'Keefe . The book was edited by Frank Milner and designed by March Design, Liverpool. Cover The image on the cover is a painting by Paul Harvey (acrylic on canvas, 212.5 x 75.5 cm), and was originally intended to accompany a previous show, the ''Stuckists Real Turner Prize Show 2003'', when the placard held by the main figure read "SEROTA NEEDS A GOOD SPANKING". Due to an argument between Harvey and another artist, Gina Bold , the painting was not used and the show was cancelled. Some months later the placard was repainted to promote the Walker show. The main figure is based on a photograph of the model and DJ Emily Mann , taken by Charles Thomson. A Stuckist on Stuckism Thomson's essay starts with an account of a confrontation with Sir Nicholas Serota in Trafalgar Square in 2001 on the occasion of a Stuckist demonstration against the installation of Rachel Whiteread 's sculpture ''Monument''. It then traces the history of the group from origins in 1979 to its foundation in 1999, reviews "A Dysfunctional Decade of Saatchi Art", describes Stuckist demonstrations at the Turner Prize and gives background on artists who have left the Stuckists—co-founder Billy Childish , Stella Vine and Gina Bold . A final section puts the group in context in a wider historical view with a proposition that the development of Modernism has been a "story of fragmentation" and that it is necessary to provide a holistic approach. A passage by Eamon Everall is quoted to explain Stuckist art: Manifestos From the Edge and Beyond Paul O'Keefe's essay is in three sections. The first treats the history of Modernism in Britain and the scorn that greeted the 1910 Post-impressionist exhibition. He describes the emergence of the homegrown radical movement, the Vorticists and how they clashed on one occasion, using brass knuckledusters, with rival avant-garde group the Italian Futurists . He includes Royal Academy President, Alfred Munnings ', notorious 1949 speech, wanting to kick Picasso . He traces the evolution of radicalism into the new establishment, setting the scene for the Stuckist challenge to it. The second section is an analysis of a BBC2 ''Newsnight'' programme on October 19 , 1999 hosted by Jeremy Paxman with Charles Thomson attacking that year's Turner Prize and artist Brad Lochore defending it. Thomson was displaying Stuckist paintings, while Lochore had brought along a plastic detergent bottle on a cardboard plinth. At one stage Lochore states, "if people say it's art, it's art". Paxman asks, "So you can say anything is art?" and Lochore replies, "You could say everything is art..." At this point Thomson, off-screen, can be heard to say, "Is my shoe art?" while at the same time his shoe appears in front of Lochore, who observes, "If you say it is. I have to judge it on those terms." Thomson's response is, "I've never heard anything so ludicrous in my life before." Part three describes the Stuckists' line of argument as "devastating in its capacity to demolish the pretensions of Conceptualism" and cites Damien Hirst 's observation that "The best spot painting you can have by me is one painted by Rachel" (one of Hirst's assistants). O'Keefe's conclusion remains undecided as to "whether the Momart warehouse blaze indeed represents the funeral pyre of BritArt " and as to the future of Stuckism's role "from its outpost on the edge". DAILY MAIL '' Daily Mail '' feature writer Jane Kelly , who is also a Stuckist artist, was sacked from the paper after exhibiting her painting ''If We Could Undo Psychosis 2'' in the show. The painting shows a family group of mother and two children with child-killer Myra Hindley substituted for the father and holding a teddy bear. The incident was reported on the front page of The Guardian newspaper, who commented: :"Stuckism, the art movement founded by Tracey Emin's former boyfriend to oppose the pretensions of Britart, claims to advocate 'honest, uncensored expression'. Unfortunately, the Daily Mail does not appear to share those values". It described how the paper welcomed a previous work by Kelly showing London Mayor Ken Livingstone in the context of the 1944 Stauffenberg plot against Hitler . The ''Daily Mail'''s managing editor, Lawrence Sear, who dismissed Kelly, described as "absolute rubbish" the claim that the loss of her job was related to her artwork. {Link without Title} REACTION |
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