Artworks in the ‘Remodernist Artists Against Rubbish’ Exhibition, Marbella – Chris Yates Stuckist Interview Place of birth: Stockport, U.K. Place of current residence: Bury, U.K Where did you learn to be an artist? Self taught painter , but learnt how not to paint at M.M.U. and The Manchester University. Which artists inspire you? Ella Guru, Joe Machine, Charles Thomson, Paul Harvey , Billy Childish . Describe your own art work: Stuckist Pop Expressionism. Why do you make art? To save myself from severe mental illness, but fail- ing badly. Why do you think art is important? It helps to keep you sane. Which piece of your own art work do you like best? Portrait: Saffie Yates. Chris Yates Stuckist What is the worst piece of art work you have seen? Billy Childish by - Paul Harvey With Blue Wig Chris Yates Stuckist, because it makes me vomit. - 2011- Acrylic on Canvas Hobbies/ areas of interest (other than art): Drinking and sex - 51cm x 61cm Favourite quote: ‘Some people view the contemporary art scene with fear and desperation because there is so much crap. We, however, rejoice be- cause we think it is funny’. (Billy Childish and Charles Thomson) <http://artistaeli.com/2012/07/11/artworks-in-the-remodernist-art- Favourite colour: Saffron ists-against-rubbish-exhibition-marbella-5/> Favourite poem: For Huddie by Billy Childish Favourite motivational quote: ‘Get off your arse’ by L Yates How do you combat creative blocks? Don’t get them, thank god. The Stuckists are enemies of art I chanced recently on the website of Stuckism International. I’m glad to see this art movement’s opposition to most 21st century media does not include a suspicion of digital technology - it’s a well-designed and efficient site. Efficient, that is, at putting out their ill-conceived, rabble-rousing nonsense. My interest in Stuckism has never been very profound, so I had no idea it could boast such a large collection of manifestos. No other art movement today makes such use of this classic 20th century literary form. For that matter, is there any other art movement to- day? Any other -ism? Art in this century is so plural and various that artists generally seem able to get their ideas across without the aid of ideologies. To which the Stuckists reply: that’s because a single ideology, the deadening, anti-art ideology of Turner prize art, with its ready- The cheap slogans and hysterical rants of the Stuckist art mades, its videos and its acceptance of absolutely anything at all, movement do not promote figurative art, they simply make it (except figurative painting), holds art in an iron grip, and kills it. harder for creativity to thrive. But it is the Stuckists who are enemies of art. It is they who make it Article by Jonathan Jones harder for sensitivity and creativity to thrive. I hate their cheap slo- gans. You should come to art with an open mind. This is not easy; <http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2009/ the hysterical rants of the Stuckists make it harder. The ready- oct/01/art-stuckist-manifesto> made can be a redundant cliche - or a poetic revelation. Painting can be the most majestic of art forms - or an ugly mess. To say “painting good, ready-made bad” is not a view of art - it’s a preju- dice. There are huge variations in the uses artists have made in the last 90 years or so, of found objects and to dismiss all these as det- rimental to art is just not an argument. It’s a surrender, a nervous breakdown. The Stuckists are enemies of all they claim to love. Too much an- ger makes a stone of the heart. My stuckist portrait: I’m flattered It’s lovely to see your own portrait in an exhibition – especially when it has been painted by Raphael. The Renaissance master is no slouch when it comes to the digital age. From the heights of Parnas- sus he has taken my photograph from this blog, stuck it onto one of the mourners of Christ, written on my forehead ... oh, wait, wait a minute, I don’t think Raphael is being nice about me at all. And he isn’t Raphael, either, but stuckist painter Darren Udaiyan, whose Renaissance travesty The Betrayal of Art – by Man can be seen in the stuckist exhibition The Enemies of Art, at Jesus Lane Gallery, Cambridge from today. In the painting (assuming it is the same as the image they emailed me), I am portrayed alongside several other supposed luminaries of the unstuck art establishment, burying art. Not only that but the title of the exhibition is a quote from an attack on stuckism that I published here. The stuckists are enemies of art, I said. And they’re repeating it. I remember some people who really are part of the art establish- ment explaining to me once that when they want to diss someone, The stuckists have retaliated to a post in which I called they simply freeze them out. The stuckists obviously don’t believe in them enemies of art by naming their new show after it. that (repellent) strategy because they’ve given me quite a lot of free promotion here, haven’t they? Um, thanks The only problem is, their story doesn’t add up, their satire is mis- < http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjones- placed. My face is indeed ugly and putting it on a Renaissance blog/2010/mar/17/art-portrait-stuckism > painting is indeed cruel ... to the Renaissance. It’s exactly the kind of crassness that made me call them enemies of art in the first place. Instead of lamenting beauty’s supposed destruction, why don’t they create some beauty? Instead of obsessing about my ugly mug, why not paint something like a vase of flowers or a cloud and just get on with it? Lucian Freud did, and his figurative art is not exactly defeated by the modern world. Anyway – thanks for the homage, guys, and who knows I may even pop to Cambridge to see if there’s anything more to this show than polemic. Stuckists demonstrate against “mind-numbingly tedious, pretentious and vacuous” Turner Prize In the time-honoured rebuttal to the Tate’s Turner Prize show, seasoned rebel art group The Stuckists have taken to the steps of Tate Britain to lambast the competition with a racy Turner Prize Hell campaign for 2010. Dishing out images of a rakish model in a leather miniskirt carrying a message suggesting Tate boss Nicholas Serota “needs a good spank- ing”, the demonstrators included a clown and a top-hatted tour guide among their unimpressed ranks. They offered badges and pamphlets mocking the Prize to visitors as the exhibition of work by the four finalists opened to the public. “It’s like watching a TV comedy show parody of contemporary art,” said co-founder Charles Thomson, who called the Prize “an excruciatingly painful presentation of mind-numbingly tedious, pretentious and vacu- ous exhibits.” “The obvious response is that of a lady last year, who asked for her money back, as she’d paid to see art and there wasn’t any. Model behaviour from The Stuckists at the Turner Prize “The demonstration outside is far more entertaining, artistic and infor- Article by Ben Miller mative.” < http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/ART309698 > The alliance has protested against the Prize since 2000, having been founded by 13 artists in a bid to promote figurative painting and oppose conceptual art. Their alternative exhibition, An Antidote to the Ghastly Turner Prize, will feature 29 artists and offer visitors “small squares of Blu-tack” at a cost of 10p a piece. http://youtu.be/XRm1EhG7ltA http://youtu.be/SI4lnKbIT1k Stuckism is a branch off Remodernism Remodernism revives aspects of modernism, particular- ly in its early form, and follows postmodernism, to which it contrasts. Adherents of remodernism advocate it as a forward and radical, not reactionary, impetus. Stuckism is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting in opposition to conceptual art. The ‘Stuckist photographers’ are an independent group founded by Andy Bullock and Larry Dunstan with a state- ment of endorsement for remodernism. an attempt to introduce a period of new spirituality into art, culture and society to replace postmodernism, which Mark D. Victoria Beckham: America Doesn’t Love Me. they said was cynical and spiritually bankrupt An “Underage Stuckists” group was founded in 2006 with their own manifesto for teenagers by two 16-year olds, Liv Soul and Rebekah Maybury, on MySpace.[13] In 2006, Allen Herndon published The Manifesto of the American Stuckists, the content of which was challenged by the Los Angeles Stuckists group. “No subject matter is too pathetic or too important.” Wolf Howard Portrait of my Great Grandfather John Stokes, Boxer and Bare Knuck- le Fighter, Joe Machine 2008 “I paint in a lean-to garage. I usually paint from sketches - mainly from life. I paint people I know or knew - it’s heavily autobiographical. I use about five colours and mix them. Paintings are finished in a day or two. I’ve smashed up about half a dozen with pure anger at not being able to get what I want. Painting and writing have been far better for me than any of the mistakes I made in stealing and fighting.” I will explore the idea of a ‘Stuckist Room’, possibly within the room currently used for temporary exhibitions. Stuckists do not do ‘installations’, nor are they interested in work that is ‘site specific’ but the idea of taking ownership of a room and decorating it with Stuckist work is full of possibilities.