Meet the Stuckists!

This morning there was extreme bad language to be heard around here, in fact, you might have heard it where you are even if it is 'ooop north' or 'over there' or even 'down under there'.  I was already guiltily aware that yesterday I had a 'slob-day' in which I did absolutely nothing, just 'slobbed' around watching either the Congressional hearings on the Benghazi attack (more on that later) or watching recordings of various American 'bish-bash' police/gangster films (Banshee is rubbish!)  I just didn't feel like doing anything - so there!  However, this morning wracked with guilt - oh, alright then - feeling slightly sheepish I sat down and wrote 90% of a marvellously witty, insightful and highly intelligent post on the Stuckists - what was that? You've never met the Stuckists!  Well, of course you haven't, that's why I was trying to introduce you.  Anyway, in a foolish attempt to add something a little different to the blog post I succeeded in erasing the whole blogging thing.  Cue: mouse being smashed onto desktop, computer being kicked, 'Memsahib' being told to mind her own business when she complained about the language and me stomping down the stairs promising never to touch the bloody computer ever again!  Happily, a good lunch has cheered me up and here I am doing my Robert the Bruce act - and if it wasn't Robert the Bruce who tried, tried and tried again then please don't tell me, I don't want to know!

Now, I want to take you back to the beginning of April when I wrote one of my witty, intelligent etc, etc, posts - and I heard that! - concerning the artist Graham Ovenden who, I reported, had been charged with various misbehaviours with little girls.  Alas for him, a large amount of his painting and photography does concentrate on prepubescant girls and in this post-Savile world that is asking for trouble - which duly arrived in the form of the local 'Plod' who swiftly had Mr. Ovenden up before Judge.  At the time I remarked that Mr. Ovenden's guilt or innocence was not my main concern; what was irritating me was that sundry 'Nationalised Picture Galleries' had ordered his works to be taken down immediately.  I pointed out that if we were to be denied the chance to look at works of art by artists who had behaved badly, even criminally, then half the galleries would be empty.  I then added that given the plethora of so-called post-modernist dross that litters (I use the word advisedly) their galleries it might be an improvement were they to be half empty!  A brief discussion ensued with some commenters and that was that - or so I thought.

Two or three weeks later I suddenly received another comment on the Ovenden post from a Mr. Bruce Wagner who pointed out that most of the charges against Mr. Ovenden had been tossed out by the Judge and that he was only found guilty on two charges none of which was concerned with child abuse.  Mr. Wagner pointed out that he had begun a blog entitled Artist on Trial for the sole purpose of making public the fact that Mr. Ovenden was absolutely and definitely not a 'kiddie-fiddler'!   In a series of e-mail exchanges, I replied to Mr. Wagner repeating my disinterest in the court action but also saying that Mr. Ovenden was lucky in one respect - that he had a true, staunch and valiant friend in Mr. Wagner!  During these exchanges Mr. Wagner picked up on my dislike of the so-called 'art constructions' which seem to win all the top art prizes today and which I think are complete rubbish.  If I tell you that that dead sheep in formaldehyde from a few years back is actually an improvement on the brainless junk that is produced today,you will have an idea how the arts have descended below mediocrity to total dross.  It was at this point that Mr. Wagner introduced me to the Stuckists.

The Stuckists are a group of contemporary artists who decided some time ago to break with the detritus assemblers and instead to call for a return to figurative painting.  One of their leaders was, at the time, the boyfriend of Ms. Tracey Emin, yes, indeed, her of the unmade bed with the suspicious stains!  She was outraged and in a fury shouted at her boyfriend:  "Your paintings are stuck, you are stuck!  Stuck!  Stuck!  Stuck!"  Thus, in an unholy row the Stuckists were born!  They don't deserve it, I know, but the fact is that I am now a Stuckist.  I'd rather have one of Banksy's wall paintings than Ms. Emin's "rank ... enseamed bed".  Even so, having had a quick glance at various examples from the Stuckists' work I was hardly surprised to find that a lot of it was not of a particularly high standard.  Some of them seem influenced by comic-book art, some have traces of Hopper, some seem influenced by the old between-the-wars poster illustrators but without their wit and style.  Still, at least they still believe in painting rather than assembling, so let's hear a jolly big cheer for the Stuckists!

Here are three examples I quite like but alas in the disaster that wiped my machine this morning I do not have the names but you will find them if you look up 'Stuckists':

                           

 

 

 

 

Comments

[dearieme]

Off topic, Duffers, but I would welcome your expert luvvie view. This David Tennant chap: I've just watched him in The Politician's Husband where I thought him poor. He was rather wooden, his accent wandered all over the place, and he was comfortably outacted by his co-star and by a child actor. I'd previously seen him in Broadchurch, a farrago of a soap opera posing as a 'tec story, in which he was just flat.

Yet people talk of him as the coming man. Why?

[Andra]

Well, I've just wasted 3 minutes of my time reading all that bumf and looked at the pictures.
Rubbish, and that's an end to it!

[Able]

I hate to say it but both groups amply illustrate to me why 'state funding' of the arts should cease, across the board.

Whilst I'm sure 'the experts' will be able to wax lyrically (but only if they get paid for it) about some imagined subtleties we mere mortals cannot see - I agree with Andra. (I think you agree too, but still wonder why you don't view the pronouncements of musical 'experts' in the same light - you really believe they hear things you do not when no two can agree amongst themselves what it is they claim to be hearing?).

For my sins I view the 'best' art being produced today as being that done for pleasure by amateurs, and by those belittled as illustrators and graphic artists, both beyond the pale to the elites.

I wonder how much of this 'stuff' would be produced if it was funded solely by whether someone would pay for it, and I'm including 'the experts' in the equation since they only ever spend other peoples money, never their own.

[David Duff]

"your expert luvvie view" What a very shrewd judge you are, DM, and how wise of you to ask my opinion! To be serious, as far as Tennant goes I'm afraid he does nothing for me although I have never seen him live. The few things I have seen him in have been poor productions in which nobody stood a chance. For example, I watched half an hour of "The Politician's Wife" and switched off! It was unsubtle, unrealistic and unbelievable. Also, and it's not his fault, poor chap, but Tennant has eyes like a terrier's blx and his stare puts me off!

"all that bumf"!!! Madam, I'll have you know that this is one of the most elegantly written blogs in Blogdom. As for the pictures, yes, they are not all of a high standard but some of them are good, for example the Persian man under a tree which I feature above is, I think, rather beautiful.

Able, I absolutely agree that state funding should cease immediately. However, I disagree with your opinion that one should always and forever be the final judge on a work of art. Critics, like second-hand car salesmen and, dare I say it, nurses, come with the usual mix of vice and virtue but the best can open your eyes and ears and suddenly present you with a vista you had completely missed. Here's an example. When I directed Measure for Measure I read as many critics as I could find. The last one of all was an ardent American feminist (yeeeees, quite!) who had written a book on women in Shakespeare. I doubted whether I would reach Chapter II but in fact I finished it all and I have never looked at that play the same way since! She opened my eyes. So, my advice is, don't abandon your principles but don't be afraid to let go of your prejudices!

[Able]

Prejudices? I hope not.

I don't dismiss their opinions, but neither do I class them as having some special insight or that their opinions are somehow more valid (better) than everyone elses.

I understand your meaning, but I think I've learnt more from listening to fellow everyday viewers/listeners than any self-styled (and remember, most are nothing more than that) critics.