Stuckism promotes contemporary figurative painting with ideas and is anti-conceptual art, mainly because of its lack of concepts. It was co-founded in 1999 by Charles Thomson and Billy Childish (who left in 2001) along with eleven other artists.
The name was derived by Thomson from an insult to Childish from his ex-girlfriend, Brit artist Tracey Emin, who had told him that his art was 'Stuck':
"Your paintings are stuck,
you are stuck!
Stuck! Stuck! Stuck!"
Stuckists have regularly demonstrated dressed as clowns against the Turner Prize. Several Stuckist Manifestos have been issued. One of them Remodernism inaugurates a renewal of spiritual values for art, culture and society to replace the emptiness of current Postmodernism. The web site www.stuckism.com, started by Ella Guru, has disseminated these ideas, and in five years Stuckism has grown to an international art movement with over 130 groups in 34 countries. These groups are independent and self-directed.
Background photo: Stuckist demo at the opening of the Triumph of Painting show, Saatchi Gallery, January 2005. Left to right: Naive John, EE, Joe Machine, Charles Thomson.
