Handy Hints
A Stuckist Manifesto
Handy Hints
HANDY
HINTS
The Stuckists (est. 1999)
ant-anti-art
The first
Remodernist art group
Handy hints for students and others on some of the thinking
behind Stuckism and the development and theory of Remodernism.
The Stuckists are
a small independent group of artists who believe passionately in the painting of pictures. They
are a model for like-minded people round the world who wish to stand up for the heart and soul
of art.
Remodernism heralds a new epoch and is the antidote to the spiritual
bankruptcy of Post Modernism. Remodernism stands for content, meaning and communication
- subjectivity, emotional engagement, integrity, love, enthusiasm and a spiritual renaissance in
society, art and the creative life.
1. Students should be inspired by and study the
artists who they love as this is their gift to us to help us develop our own vision. (In Japanese
there is a single word for to learn and to copy).
2. The language of the visionary artist
is by nature always subjective, limited and partial, this is its power not its weakness. Personal
truth, sought for with integrity, communicates to the inner world of us all and therefore contains
the whole.
3. Objectivity is only useful in discerning the truth of our subjectiveness.
4. The naming of names and the demarcation of the arts.
It is not fascism
to name a brick a brick, a shoe a shoe, a horse a horse or a painting as art.
Standing on the ground is not a type of flying. Calling walking walking does not
devalue walking or suggest that walking is some how inferior to jumping up and down.
Declaring a dead horse hung from the ceiling of a gallery not to be art is not racism or hatred of
dead horses. It is a value judgement, and here on earth value judgements are of value.
The making of video films and the reproducing of computer images are not the
avant-garde. They are a comfortable niche for people who are afraid of energy and don't like
getting their hands dirty.
Computer 'art' is patterns and bad graphics. You have good
film making (subjectivity, emotional engagement, moral dilemma) and you have bad film making
(immoral, objective and boring), and you have art film making (just plain boring). By boring we
mean it could be there or not be there and it would make no difference, but it would be better if
it wasn't.
You have a painting department. You have a sculpture department. You
have a film department (where you make films). You have a fashion department, which is
clothes.
The painting of pictures is the painting of pictures. People agree that a shoe
is a shoe and a brick is a brick, not out of dogma or closed-mindedness but to avoid walking
around with bricks strapped to their feet.
A sculpture is a sculpture.
What
is wrong with mixed media? What is wrong with earth, salt, mustard, a fried egg, chewing gum,
marmalade and a sausage on your dinner plate?
5. Sculptors who don't sculpt aren't
sculptors.
6. Freedom through limitation. Honouring our limitations. Integrity of
materials is depth. Rather than being a limit, the limitations of a medium are a liberation from
limitation. We must be limited to gain freedom.
Addiction to the unlimited is the worst
limitation of all. That's why we have fifty-five terrestrial television stations all broadcasting
crap, 60,000,000 cars all driving bumper to bumper to nowhere and an identikit fast food outlet
on every street corner of every town of the world.
7. Technique is not a goal in itself, it
is a means of portraying the vision. The danger of distraction by the technical, the formal and
the material, is that their reality acts as a block to the artist's inner vision, because it fools you
in to believing that you insight when all you have is a conjuring trick. What is conventionally
considered a skill can in fact be a handicap.
8. To paint important pictures the artist
has to be unafraid of being unimportant. The spiritual artist has to have the guts to search for
God, fail, search, fail and look again.
9. Artist are often very flawed people. In fact it is
essential to be flawed because if you are not flawed you are deceiving yourself, which is the
biggest flaw of all. To deal honestly with ourselves and thereby raise consciousness is not an
easy task. The first stage of growth is being realistic about who we are, what we are and where
we are now. We have to be able to accept our feelings. If we feel inadequate, weak, angry,
pathetic, proud, bumptious or self righteous, we start there and paint it. It is not a problem to
feel these things. It means that you are a normal well balanced human being.
10. It is
possible not to believe in God and be more spiritual than somebody who does believe in God.
Making a picture is an act of faith. Faith is not knowing that God exists or that
everything is going to be comfortable and cosy. Faith entails bravery. Faith is found and lost
again and again. Faith means that we try to deal with ourselves and life fairly and honestly
especially when we don't think that we're quite up to it.
11. It can be very tempting,
especially for the contemporary artist, to hide behind his or her precious style and become
stuck. An extreme example of this is in the ironic copying of a previous work by another artist,
which is then claimed as 'new' original work. This is of course completely different to the
traditional practice of copying the work of the masters in order to learn. It is also different to an
interpretation of a previous work, whether in homage or as satire. Through the sincere copying
of work out of respect we can gain insight into the shared dilemma of being a human being with
shared challenges, problems, fears, hopes and limitations .
12. The Remodernist
accepts everything in life but only for exactly what it is, not more and yet not less. Everything
has its function and its purpose.
13. The spiritual must be connected with the
everyday. An idea that is not properly manifest remains a fantasy.
14. Art can no
longer be funny little games that you can't see because they're not really there.
15.
The spiritual artist, the Remodernist, must walk along the road, go to the seaside, buy ice
creams, bonk and jump naked from a bush. In fact they carry on exactly as they were doing
before, but with a new perception.
16. The soul of art is integrity.
17.
Remodernism advocates an art that is the first kind of art that man did - cave painting.
18. It is quite obvious that the apparent material winners in this world are not
necessarily finding happiness and are in fact often just getting unhappier. People think
materialism is going to solve all their problems but the real problem isn't material and neither is
the solution. Turning everything in the world into a commodity is not the most intelligent way of
finding happiness. Materialism with no thought of consequence makes bigger problems than
the small ones it solves.
19. The spiritual path means by definition that we often
experience ourselves as not measuring up. But that doesn't mean that we lose heart - far from
it. This not measuring up is how we actually relate to the truth of who we are. Conceptualism
short circuits this natural organic process, which is the actual beauty and worth of art, and
replaces it with instant gratification and the silliness of its clever ideas.
20. Modern
art, over the course of its development, has increasingly followed the letter of the law but not
the spirit. Art theorists have made observations on historical art. These observations have been
turned into definitions. These definitions have been wilfully and perversely misinterpreted by
art reductionists, who appear no more than overgrown children seeking to outwit parental rules,
and with as little foresight of the consequences of their actions as infants playing at the edge of
cliff.
21. Let us consider the integral value of two different approaches to art. Without
financial and critical reward is it conceivable that Damien Hirst would have stayed at home for
20 years pickling sheep in his bedroom? I think we can confidently say no to this question. This
is because his work is not about taxidermy, art or meaning. The purpose of such a
fashion/fetish object for its creator is the attention, adulation and financial gain that it
commands.
At the other end of the spectrum is the example of Vincent van Gogh
whose work was fuelled by an intense love and philosophy, a burning desire to contribute
through the expression of his vision for the benefit of humanity. He worked and studied for
many years in relative obscurity to find the means of expressing this vision. Van Gogh didn't
give up on painting because his work was a commercial disaster. He continued because the
communicating of personal and universal truth is the real value and reward of art.
22. The rational and the material (traditionally male characteristics) have triumphed
over feeling and intuition (traditionally associated with the female) . Women have quite rightly
deplored the male chauvinism rampant in our society and so, as sensitive artists, do we. We
likewise deplore the women who have assumed and exhibited the worst aspects of this male
chauvinism in life and in an art which only too obviously manifests its barrenness. The only
point of feminism is in achieving equal recognition for the male and the female.
23. It
is time for art to grow up.
24. Artists are only artists when they are doing art. They
are not an artist when the wake up in the morning. They are not an artist when they water
flowers, or get drunk and swear on channel 4.
25. In truth you can't be what you do:
you can only do what you do and be what you are. What you are is you. Someone who believes
that they are what they do is either a madman or a fool. What happens to someone who
smugly considers themselves to be a car driver and loathes pedestrians, when they have to get
out of their car and walk down the road? We are not anything we do, but human beings who do
things. It is a lack of self confidence and an inflated ego (two states that always accompany
each other) that creates this need for a label in substitute for character.
26. Joseph
Beuys, the artist who shares the anti-establishment establishment's accolade of being anti-
establishment (along with all Brit Artists), is sited as a genius for stating that all people are really
artists. The Stuckists claim their right to the title of genius by proclaiming that all people are
brain surgeons.
27. The title of artist is one that has to be earned through doing art
for more than five minutes. Crap builders are not known as builders - they are known as crap.
28. The main point is that there is a reason for doing art: so that man communicates
with him/herself, his/her fellows and thereby participates in the universal creative process.
29. True art is not the exhibition of existing objects but the transcendence of them
through interpretation in another medium. This is the difference between life and art. Some
people say that life and art are the same, in which case art is redundant as we already have life.
This position is patently absurd. No one would sensibly suggest that Van Gogh's bed is of
equal value to, or greater value than, his painting of it. This clearly illustrates the lie to the found
object as art.
30. All things are qualitatively different. A shoe is not art because of its
inherent shoeyness and usefulness as a kind of 'foot-glove'. Like wise a blancmange isn't a
shoe. This isn't a dilemma for most people and, until relatively recently, was not a problem for
artists. Certainly it is not an oversight by God. Actually it is because of the great benevolence of
existence: grass isn't a star system and a mountain isn't a pear tree. All things have there own
organic pattern which is to be celebrated in art.
31. Remodernism celebrates diversity
and de-centralisation. Rather than a bland uniform art, designed for easy global consumption,
Remodernisim respects the diverse artistic traditions of the world.
32. There is the
outward journey into the world and there is the inner journey into the self. Both are equally
important and actually the same thing.
33. The apparent solidities and separations
of the material world are, as Einstein pointed out, "an illusion, albeit a stubborn one" - with
which it is best to co-operate (rather than attempting to walk through walls). The artist, like any
other human being, lives in the world of form and has to act according to the principles of
nature.
34. Some people manage to understand that everything isn't really anything
but then make the mistake of thinking it doesn't matter what you do.
35. Art is of
most value when it is still wet on the canvas. The drier the paint becomes and the higher the
financial value rises, the less true value the painting holds. The primary revelation is the most
powerful connection to the whole.
36. Most artists are stupid and don't have many
ideas. On the rare occasions that they do have an idea the novelty of it strikes them with such
force that they attribute great value to it, such value in fact that they consider it to be the
justification of a 'conceptual work of art'. They fail to realise that what for them is a blinding
revelation appears as a crushing cliché to the rest of us.
37. The artist must take the
right course, which may not be the course that we thought was the right one. It may mean being
humble enough to appear pompous, arrogant, silly, and sentimental and courageous enough
to accept our own confusion and ignorance and not be afraid of the simplicity of love.
38. People who do not know history have no sense of where they fit into anything
and remain forever dazzled by the contemporary and the ephemeral.
39. Artists of
today would be horrified if they had to create to the demands of church or state yet they are
quite happy to kow-tow to the demands of a gallery, a critic or especially an advertising agency
for the promotion of alcohol.
40. Art, undertaken with love and respect, brings
renewed awareness of the colours and miracle of nature and heightens our connection to life
and the divine.
41. Creativity is the most essential ingredient for a happy and
healthy society and differentiates the human soul from that of a potato.
Billy Childish
Charles Thomson
11.4.2000
APPENDICES
(i) Practical advice.
In light of the
lack of technical instruction in art colleges we give some basic tips for new painters.
1. Do not use household paint a) there is no guarantee that it is light-fast b) there is no
guarantee that the colours will mix properly.
2. Oil paint is capable of a higher pigment
saturation than acrylic binder.
3. Artists oils are better than student quality, but some
are still dubious. Recommended are Michael Harding paints from Atlantis, 79 Plumbers' Row, E1.
Tel 020 7377 8850.
4. Use white spirit to clean brushes and turps with medium to thin
paint.
5. Fat over lean i.e. succeeding layers of paint should have a higher percentage
of oil to turps in the medium to prevent cracking. Likewise, paint wet on wet, or wet on dry but not
wet on semi- dry.
6. Do not use ivory black as undercoat (extremely high oil content).
7. Priming. Use artist primer not emulsion.
8. Buy The Artist's Handbook of
Materials and Techniques by Ralph Mayer.
(ii) Some
inspiration from Van Gogh, Munch and Christ.
I feel that my work lies in the heart of
the people, that I must keep close to the ground, that I must grasp life in its depths...
Vincent van Gogh 11th May 1882
Let us try to master the mysteries of
techniques to such an extent that people are deceived by it and will swear by all that is holy that
we have no technique.
Vincent van Gogh April 1884
Nature is not something that
can be seen by the eye alone - it lies also within the soul, in pictures seen by the inner eye.
Edvard Munch 1907/8
What I'm trying to do most is bring life into it.
Vincent van Gogh, April 1885
I have become more of what I truly am.
Vincent van Gogh, October 1884
It would be well for us to lift up our eyes
at times, as if to see the invisible.
Vincent van Gogh, 30th October 1877
Jesus said, 'If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If
you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.'
The Gnostic Gospels
(iii) Recommended study
Thomas Gainsborough 1727 - 1788
He started off painting quite badly, he
painted in his own way, his own style and technique. Gainsbourough pioneered landscape
painting by painting landscapes when it was completely unfashionable and nobody bought
them. An Influence on Turner.
J.M.W.Turner 1775 - 1851
A true father of
Modernism who took his paints and palette out into the raw elements to bring light, vitality and
personal impression to European art.
Hokusai 1760 - 1849 and Hiroshige 1797 -
1858
Japanese printmakers bringing colour and vision of the everyday to their work.
A huge influence on western art that went far beyond the Impressionists and informs Stuckism
today.
Vincent van Gogh 1853 - 1890
A man wrestling with his so called
lack of ability to bring a new depth and meaning to art, and one of the greatest examples of
clear and dedicated artistic endeavour. The candidness and straightforward approach of Van
Gogh's work typifies the essence of Remodernism.
Edvard Munch 1863 - 1944
A visionary who, like Van Gogh, ignored his detractors to wrestle with his own
neurosis and transmute his inner struggle into inspirational art. One of the true masters of the
Modernist school before it declined into formalism and abstraction, thereby avoiding having to
face anything that matters about being a human being.
Die Brücke 1905 - 1913
The last roar of modernism and the last burst of passion and energy in western art.
Dada 1915 -1922
A movement that was deliberately anti-art, which was
fine whilst it lasted. Warning: to copy anti-art and to claim that it is art is somewhat missing
the point.
Published by The Hangman Bureau of Enquiry
11
Boundary Road, Chatham, Kent ME4 6TS
