Research Blog: Entry 7

 Since the topic of Remodernism is a fairly recent, and relatively niche subject, there weren’t many scholarly articles available online or in print. Therefore, I began conducting secondary research into my topic by investigating the Stuckism art movement. Their home website "Stuckism International" is the best source for academic material, since it contains an exhaustive list of essays, in addition to manifestos that outline the group’s main premises and convey their point of view. As the first artists to publish a manifesto, outlining their goals of inaugurating the period of Remodernism, the group’s manifesto, "Remodernism (2000)" which attempts to replace Postmodernism with spiritual values, is the most relevant source for my research. There are also links to external sites, containing videos and interviews from various gallery openings and television appearances that can be used as supplementary material.
 On the "Stuckism Essays" page of their website there is a small selection of academic essays that I will quote in my thesis. The linked documents are mostly examining and analysing the movement and their philosophy. One of the most relevant essays for my research is titled "A Study of Stuckism (2002)" by Kirstie Gregory, which offers ‘An outsider's look at Stuckism with emphasis on its 'spiritual' content, comparisons in art history and contemporary development.’ Since I’m mainly concerned with which aspects of Modernism have successfully been revived by Remodernism, I will be applying quotes from supportive passages that discuss these four key points:

Spirituality:

• The awesome figures created possess a weighty spiritual presence, however, as with many renaissance pieces, it is extremely difficult to connect the art to our mortal experiences.
• Although Mediaeval art was portraying a heaven very removed from that of the Greeks, and one cannot deny the spiritual investment in the work, we are left with a vision difficult to entirely privately access.
• In the Renaissance art began to compromise its spiritual integrity almost simultaneously with the subjects and situations being brought closer to the beholder's earthly world.
• Thus while art was at once more tangible it was at the same time becoming more spiritually tarnished by the patronage necessary for its production.
• Since the Modernist painters' spiritual epiphany art has descended once more into materialism, though through novel means.
• The momentum of any potentially powerful movement was lost and a fragmentation of Modern art occurred which led to many artists being unable to attain the essential combination of spirituality and reality which rendered the paintings of those such as Van Gogh so truly amazing.
• This descent into zero spiritual content has accelerated in the art world, culminating in the presence of work in galleries which one might just as easily stumble across in a squat, on a building site or in an abattoir.
• The Stuckists, as they clarify in their book The Stuckists: the First Remodernist Art Group, wish to take the original, laudable principles of Modernism and use them to produce art with a tangible spiritual content and with relevance to everyday reality.
• Their refusal to compromise or comply artistically with current trends and their commitment to producing art of visual and personal integrity renders them central to any worthwhile future for contemporary art other than one dominated by mundanity, mediocrity and pseudo-concept over spiritual content.
• Stuckism is a vibrant, vital movement, but importantly not one with material rather than spiritual aims.
• The fact that artists who are now describing themselves as Stuckists came to have similar reactions to the art world surrounding them, simultaneously, is indicative of how very necessary a spiritual renaissance in art is to our time.
• The Stuckists have various spiritual beliefs but they all believe that art should enrich the soul and enflame the spirit, and that this should be achieved through welding our inner emotions with our conscious actions.

Figurativism:

• The awesome figures created possess a weighty spiritual presence, however, as with many renaissance pieces, it is extremely difficult to connect the art to our mortal experiences.
• The superhuman figures transcend reality and do not easily emotionally inspire us.
• Figures in Mediaeval mosaics are not physically supermen, situations are not fantastical, yet the art is well removed from mundane reality.
• The composition is flat, completely one-dimensional, situations highly confrontational and, stylistically, elements such as glittering gold leaf and the contrived poses of the figures shut the viewer out of the picture.

Formalism:

• The Greeks worshipped a plethora of gods who we can see represented in sculptural works and we are told were also represented in painted form.
• Unfortunately new or recently rediscovered formal techniques are often accompanied by a cynical or ironical message, and art often comes to be empty of feeling, empathy or sincerity.

Conceptualism:

• Their refusal to compromise or comply artistically with current trends and their commitment to producing art of visual and personal integrity renders them central to any worthwhile future for contemporary art other than one dominated by mundanity, mediocrity and pseudo-concept over spiritual content.

References

Gregory, K. (2002). A Study of Stuckism. [online] Stuckism International. Available at: https://www.stuckism.com/Gregory.html [Accessed 03 Jan. 2019].