Sticking to Art

The Stuckists, with their traditional techniques, appear to produce precisely that work that the Dadaists might have rejected. But they are appealing, as Dada did, to be heard over the meaningless expositions of the powers that be. The Stuckists dismiss the hierarchy of museum, curators, and free-wheeling theorizing. This situation requires a regrounding, they claim, insisting that a work of art can be valued for reasons other than its idea. And thus, they fly in the face of the art establishment, particularly as it is represented financially in the United Kingdom.

Post Modernism, in its adolescent attempt to ape the clever and witty in modern art, has shown itself to be lost in a cul–de–sac of idiocy. What was once a searching and provocative process (as Dadaism) has given way to trite cleverness for commercial exploitation. The Stuckist calls for an art that is alive with all aspects of human experience; dares to communicate its ideas in primeval pigment; and possibly experiences itself as not at all clever!
-from The Stuckists, 1999

The making of art informs much of its meaning. Art that isn't made or paid for by experience has no meaning. In 1915 the Dadaist joke was urgent and outrageous: as a statement of Post Modern irony it is dull beyond belief.
-from An Open Letter to Sir Nicholas Serota, 2000

The Stuckists refer to Dada in two of their initial manifestos suggesting a connection. Since many Stuckists do not like each other’s work, the alliance among them as a group is loose at best, and not dissimilar to the Dada, or others in these historical avant-garde groups. That the founders refer to Dada in the manifestos strongly suggests their understanding of a relationship, but this does not extend to other Stuckists. Nonetheless, it would be an interesting project to trace the relationship between Dada and Stuckism.