The Stuckists Punk Victorian

The Stuckists were founded in 1999 by Charles Thomson and Billy Childish to promote figurative painting and oppose conceptual art. The name was derived from an insult by Tracey Emin. The original group of 13 artists has now grown to an international movement of over 160 groups in 40 countries. Childish left the group in 2001. ==Walker Art Gallery==

during the 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. 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. The show was extended from two to five months and the Walker called it "a really, really popular show and very successful." ==Lady Lever Art Gallery==

: paintings by Charles Thomson and (bottom right) Paul Harvey. A separate smaller show at the Lady Lever Art 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. The gallery also staged the first national exhibition by the Stuckist Photographers. ==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 photograph 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 photographs 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 × 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. 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. . Is My Shoe Art? The second section is an analysis of a BBC2 Newsnight programme on 19 October 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==

. If We Could Undo Psychosis 2. Daily Mail feature writer Jane Kelly, who is also a Stuckist artist, was sacked by 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. Thomson said, "It is not glorifying Myra Hindley, it's called psychosis—can anyone ever be healed is the question posed by this painting." Kelly's sacking was reported on the front page of The Guardian, which described how the Daily Mail had welcomed a previous work by Kelly showing London Mayor Ken Livingstone in the context of the 1944 Stauffenberg plot against Hitler, and 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". The Daily Mail's managing editor, Lawrence Sear, who dismissed Kelly, described as "unmitigated rubbish" the claim that the loss of her job was related to her artwork and that "the departure of Jane Kelly is a matter only for her and the newspaper." ==Reaction==

There was a very diverse reaction to the show. Adrian Searle, art critic of The Guardian called it "dreadful" The sexual and violent content of some of the paintings was commented on. Mark Lawson on BBC Radio 4 warned, with particular reference to a painting by Joe Machine of two sailors having anal sex, that the paintings might cause controversy, as they were "certainly not ... conventional" but contained "very bold and explicit images". . Sea Shanty Susan Mansfield in The Scotsman said they were "far from traditional or conservative" and "as shocking as anything Jake and Dinos Chapman could produce", adding "the Stuckists have a strong philosophical base". The Sunday Times saw the presence of the work in an established national museum as "another step on the road to critical acceptance", as did the museum review site 24hourmuseum: ""They’ve spent years fighting the establishment. Now ... the Stuckists have been invited to join it." ==Fringe shows==

, London, held a fringe show. There were also 6 simultaneous fringe shows: • "Stigmata" or "Censorious": The Stuckists Punk Victorian at the Rivington Gallery in London • Stuck in the Country at the Brockdam Gallery in Northumberland • Stuckists in the Walker - Stuckists in Lewenhagen at the Stuckism Centre in Germany • ''Stuckist Punk Victorian Lite If You Can't Be Bothered to Go to Liverpool in Edinburgh The Scotsman'' reported that Stella Vine had threatened to commit suicide if her work was in the Stuckist show. ==Serota's visit and Tate donation==

and Turner Prize. Work on the right wall is by Charles Williams and Paul Harvey. , John Bourne, Sir Nicholas Serota, Joe Machine, at the show, 17 September 2004. Sir Nicholas Serota was dubbed the "least likely visitor" to the show, which included a wall of work satirising the Tate and Serota himself, such as Thomson's Sir Nicholas Serota Makes an Acquisitions Decision. In fact, he did visit and met the artists, describing the work as "lively". In 2006 the Charity Commission censured the Tate and ruled that it had broken the law in making the purchase and similar trustee purchases during the previous 50 years. ==Artists==

Featured artists Philip Absolon, Frances Castle, Elsa Dax, Eamon Everall, Ella Guru, Paul Harvey, Wolf Howard, Bill Lewis, Joe Machine, Peter McArdle, Mandy McCartin, Sexton Ming, Charles Thomson, Charles Williams UK artists Stephen Coots, David John Beesley, Dan Belton, John Bourne, Jonathon Coudrille, Michelle England, Stephen Howarth, Naive John, Rachel Jordan, Jane Kelly, Emily Mann, Daniel Pincham-Phipps, Matthew Robinson, Mary von Stockhausen. International artists Godfrey Blow, J Todd Dockery, Brett Hamil, Tony Juliano, ZF Lively, Terry Marks, Jesse Richards Photographers Andy Bullock, Larry Dunstan, Wolf Howard, Charles Thomson ==Gallery==

Image:Philip Absolon. Job Club.jpg|Philip Absolon. Job Club Image:Eamon Everall. Olympia.jpg|Eamon Everall. A Newer Olympia Image:Ella Guru, Sexton Ming with Face Pack.jpg|Ella Guru. Facepack Image:Paul Harvey, Madonna.jpg|Paul Harvey. Madonna Image:Bill Lewis. God Is an Atheist - She Doesn't Believe in Me.jpg|Bill Lewis. ''God Is an Atheist: She Doesn't Believe in Me'' Image:Joe Machine, My Grandfather Will Fight You.jpg|Joe Machine. My Grandfather Will Fight You Image:Peter McArdle, An Annunciation.jpg|Peter McArdle. On a Theme of Annunciation Image:Charles Thomson. A Long Way From Greece.jpg|Charles Thomson. A Long Way from Greece Image:John Bourne. Aeroplane.jpg|John Bourne. Aeroplane Image:Elsa Dax. Venus and Mars.jpg|Elsa Dax. Venus and Mars Image:Jane Kelly. Psychosis 1.jpg|Jane Kelly. If We Could Undo Psychosis 1 Image:Wolf Howard. El Toro.jpg|Wolf Howard. El Toro ==Notes and references==