Stuckist demonstrations

Stuckist artists demonstrate outside the Turner Prize, Tate Britain, London, 4 December 2006.

Stuckist demonstrations since 2000 have been a key part of the Stuckist art group's activities and have succeeded in giving them a high-profile both in Britain and abroad. Their primary agenda is the promotion of figurative painting and opposition to conceptual art.

Their demonstrations are particularly associated with the Turner Prize at Tate Britain (sometimes dressed as clowns to mock the museum), but have also been carried out at other venues, including Trafalgar Square and the Saatchi Gallery. There have also been other protests in the United States by US Stuckists, and there have been Stuckist events against the Iraq War in 2003.

They have received extensive media coverage for these events both in the UK and internationally, and become possible suspects for any London art protests, as in Matthew Collings' description of the opening of Tate Modern in 2000: "Guilt-free art lovers crossed picket lines put up by envious artist-outsiders. They didn't know who was protesting out there. Maybe it was the Stuckists."[1] There is, however, no mention of any such demonstration on the Stuckism website.[2] Sir Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate gallery, has recognised the demonstrations as a contribution to artistic debate,[3] and the Tate archive contains material from the demonstrations,[4] which are now a staple feature of the Turner Prize process.[5]

  1. ^ Collings, Matthew (2001). Art Crazy Nation, page 16, 21 Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-901785-08-4
  2. ^ Stuckism International official site Retrieved 27 March 2006
  3. ^ "Tate rejects £500,000 gift from 'unoriginal' Stuckists", The Times, 28 July 2005 Retrieved 28 March 2006
  4. ^ Nordland, Rod. "You call that art?", Newsweek, 4 October 2008. Retrieved 15 October 2008.
  5. ^ Culture24 staff. "Stuckists launch their annual protest against the Turner Prize at Tate Britain", Culture24, 29 September 2008. Retrieved 3 December 2009.