Origins and 2000 manifesto Charles Thomson and
Billy Childish, the founders of the
stuckism art movement, inaugurated the period of remodernism. Their
Remodernism manifesto was published on March 1, 2000 to promote vision, authenticity and self-expression, with an emphasis on painting, and subtitled "towards a new spirituality in art". Its premise is that the potential of the
modernist vision has not been fulfilled, that its development has been in the wrong direction and that this vision needs to be reclaimed, redefined and redeveloped. It advocates the search for truth, knowledge and meaning, and challenges
formalism. It has a short introduction, summing up: "Modernism has progressively lost its way, until finally toppling into the bottomless pit of Postmodern
balderdash." This is followed by 14 numbered points, stressing bravery, individuality, inclusiveness, communication, humanity and the perennial against nihilism, scientific materialism and the "brainless destruction of convention." Point 7 states: Point 9 states: "Spiritual art is not religion. Spirituality is humanity's quest to understand itself and finds its symbology through the clarity and integrity of its artists." Point 12 links its use of the word "God" to enthusiasm—from the Greek root
en theos (to be possessed by God). The summary at the end starts, "It is quite clear to anyone of an uncluttered mental disposition that what is now put forward, quite seriously, as art by the ruling elite, is proof that a seemingly rational development of a body of ideas has gone seriously awry," and finds the solution is a spiritual renaissance because "there is nowhere else for art to go. Stuckism's mandate is to initiate that spiritual renaissance now." Childish and Thomson sent their remodernism manifesto to
Sir Nicholas Serota, Director of the
Tate Gallery, who replied, "You will not be surprised to learn that I have no comment to make on your letter, or your manifesto
Remodernism."
Exhibitions (2000–2009) In March 2000 the
Stuckists declared themselves to be the first remodernist art group at a show
The Resignation of Sir Nicholas Serota. In April, remodernism was quoted in
The Gulf News (
UAE). In May
The Observer newspaper announced a stuckist show: "As the founding group of a self-named art movement called Remodernism, they stand on an art ticket that's against clever conceptualism and in favour of a more emotional and spiritual integrity in art via figurative painting." In June, Thomson and Childish gave a talk on stuckism and remodernism at the Salon des Arts, Kensington, promoted by the
Institute of Ideas. The same month the "Students for Stuckism" also gave "a Remodernist show and talk". The Institute of Remodernism was founded by
Khatereh Ahmadi. In 2001, Thomson stood in the
UK general election, stating, "The Stuckist Party aims to bring the ideas of Stuckism and Remodernism into the political arena." : graduates staged a remodernism show. In January 2002, Magnifico Arts presented the show
ReMo: ReModernism of graduate students from the
University of New Mexico. At an artists' talk, Kevin Radley, an art professor at the
University of California, Berkeley said, "Remodernism isn't about going backwards, but about surging forward." In an essay that accompanied the exhibition, Radley wrote: The show curator, Yoshimi Hayashi, said: In 2003, an independent group, the
Stuckist Photographers, was founded by Andy Bullock and Larry Dunstan with a statement of endorsement for remodernism. In 2004, the Defastenists, a new group of creatives in Ireland, declared themselves remodernist. A Remodernist art gallery, The Deatrick Gallery was founded in
Louisville, Kentucky. American film makers/photographers
Jesse Richards and
Harris Smith co-founded a new group
remodernist film and photography with an emphasis on emotional meaning and characterised by elements of new-wave, no-wave, expressionist and transcendental film-making. Stuckist artist
Bill Lewis, interviewed by the
BBC at the 2004
Liverpool Biennial, said that remodernism was "not a movement as such", New York stuckist artist,
Terry Marks said that remodernism posited that modernism had started in a good direction, but veered from that into "pure idea" and that it was necessary to return to the starting point to take an as-yet unexplored alternative direction: "to pursue art-making that's more concrete and accessible to more people, and find out where that leads us". In 2004, Luke Heighton wrote in
The Future magazine, "Remodernism, it seems, is here to stay whether we like it or not."
Alex Kapranos of
Franz Ferdinand declared 2004 "a good year for remodernism—for having the gall to suggest that artists can have souls". In August 2005 an art show
Addressing the Shadow and Making Friends with Wild Dogs: Remodernism (a title taken from a line in the stuckist remodernism manifesto) was held at
CBGBs 313 gallery in
New York City. Artist and blogger
Mark Vallen said, "In the mid-1970s punk rock was born in a dank little New York nightclub called CBGB's. It all started when rockers like Television, the Ramones and Patti Smith launched a frontal assault on the monolith of corporate rock 'n roll. Now another artistic revolt, Remodernism, is about to widen its offensive from the birthplace of punk." In May 2007, with punk singer Adam Bray, he created the Mad Monk Collective in
Folkestone, England, to promote remodernism. In January 2008, London
Evening Standard critic, Ben Lewis, said the year would see "the invention of a new word to describe the modernist revival: 'remodernism,'" which he applied later in the year to
Turner Prize nominees
Mark Leckey,
Runa Islam and
Goshka Macuga, as "part of a whole movement reviving early 20th-century formalism", praising Macuga for her "heartfelt, modest and generous-spirited aesthetic", of which he said there was more needed today. In April 2009, he described Catalina Niculescu, a Romanian artist using "nostalgic" On 27 August 2008,
Jesse Richards published a
Remodernist Film Manifesto, calling for a "new spirituality in cinema", use of intuition in filmmaking, as well as describing the remodernist film as being a "stripped down, minimal, lyrical, punk kind of filmmaking". The manifesto criticizes
Stanley Kubrick, filmmakers who use digital video, and
Dogme 95. Point 4 says: In 2009, Nick Christos and other students from
Florida Atlantic University founded the Miami Stuckists group. Christos said, "Stuckism is a renaissance of modernism—it's re-modernism." ==See also==