"We apologise to those guests who have waited patiently in past years to get protest leaflets signed..." -- Charles Thomson

Art It was somewhat inevitable that Mark Wallinger would win the Turner Prize even though Zarina Bhimji is clearly better. It's supposed to be for a career's work, his was the showiest of the pieces. Charles Thomson, co-founder of the Stuckists art group thinks we should have boycotted it altogether: "It is desperately necessary to upgrade the standards of the prize which has steadily degraded into increasing blandness. What is needed is someone whose manic personality is guaranteed to give some zest to proceedings by doing all the wrong things. We suggest possibly Billy Childish (Co-founder, now ex-, Stuckist), who is incapable of not speaking his mind, and Stella Vine (another former Stuckist) who is well known as the loosest cannon since the Battle of Trafalgar. However, we understand the natural reluctance of the Tate to nominate people who paint pictures for a prize named after a painter."

1 comment:

Charles Thomson said...

How paradoxical to get noticed by not doing anything in order to protest by not protesting. It is true last year there was a (very) small queue of guests at one point waiting to get our protest leaflet signed. It was a nice colour job on A5 card, which you can see Sir Nicholas Serota brandishing in a video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9Ot9HbuNwA (that copy is now in the Tate archive). One guest walked to the top of the Tate steps, saw someone else's card, and walked back down again to collect her own. To be accurate, the Prize is for a show held in the preceding 12 months. The Tate staged the show State Britain by Wallinger, then gave the Prize to the show they had held. No one seems to have noticed this sleight of hand.