'Stuckism' An Art Movement

Monday, 31 December 2007 20:26

London - Stuckists and their art have been called many things in the press and by observers. A quick cull reveals that we are neo-conservative, revolutionary, reactionary, progressive, traditional, anti-establishment, old-fashioned, new, obvious, controversial, clichéd, original, a backlash, radical, pop, expressionist, outsider, conceptual, anti-conceptual, craftsmen, daubers, trained, crude, precise, unfinished, thought-provoking, gauche, witty, naïve, deep, a joke, serious, contrived, authentic, insensitive, heartfelt, puerile, high-flown, clumsy, genuine, grotesque, important, bad and great.

These things may well be in Stuckism, but none of them is Stuckism. The contradictions that result from attempting to impose conventional definitions are inevitable, because the nature of Stuckism is to contain these opposites and integrate them. There's a very useful word which can be accurately applied to the nature of Stuckism, but it hasn't quite sunk in yet (although it is being 'tracked' by the OED so hopefully people will believe it sooner or later). It is 'Stuckist'.

It needs a new word for a new paradigm, just as, for example, Surrealism could not be meaningfully defined in terms of previous movements such as Classicism or Cubism: it had an entirely different segment of concerns, and interestingly, like Stuckism, it used a whole range of previous styles for a new purpose.

Materials in art are a means to an end, not the end in themselves. The end is to address life, and to condense it to a symbolic form that enables us to relive and/or broaden experience and understanding through a 'magical' process.

Stuckists use paint as a medium, not because it is traditional, but because its flexibility has a potentially Shakespearian breadth, depth and subtlety. This medium takes second place to the subject; the material is not the cause celebre - the subjects depicted and the consciousness embodied are the primary concern. Even when paint asserts itself as a medium, to be experienced sensually in its own right, it still translates the artist's hand and mind unavoidably.

Eamon Everall, one of the founding Stuckists, states Stuckist practice:

The signal difference between Stuckism and former movements, many of which individual Stuckists are undoubtedly influenced by, is that, unlike them, Stuckist artists are not bound by a single easily identifiable stylistic 'look'. Visiting a show of Stuckist work the viewer will be first struck by the diversity and eclecticism of the works on show, and it is this which makes Stuckism so difficult for the critic. They find here no easy stylistic or technical hooks upon which they can hang their outmoded critical methods.

Stuckists paint primarily because they are driven to paint, driven to express that element of their humanity which sets us apart from the animal world, namely creativity. Their work does not seek to be clever or original for its own sake, and at times may even appear clumsy and raw, but it is never dishonest and it never seeks to mislead or confuse the viewer in the form of convoluted egoistic one-up-man-ship which we see so often in galleries elsewhere today.

After a century of growing public alienation from the art world, Stuckism seeks to return the enjoyment and involvement of art to where it belongs, to the maker and the viewer. Stuckism, warts and all, is honest. What you see is what you get.

The unification of Stuckist art is through the values that drive it, namely truth to self and experience in its content, and clarity and directness in its expression and communication.

Stuckist art can be novel, but it is not made for novelty appeal. It gives a deepening rapport over time that I fail to find with a fish carcass floating in a glass coffin. Its directness results from a meaningful and balanced insight into complexity, and an unflinching acceptance of our humanity. Like all true art it brings us closer to who we really are.