''Go West'' is the title of the first exhibition by
Stuckist artists in a commercial London West End gallery. It was staged in
Spectrum London
Spectrum London was a London art gallery which showed contemporary figurative painting, photography and sculpture. It staged '' Go West'', the first commercial West End show of the Stuckists, and a retrospective by Sebastian Horsley. It closed ...
gallery in October 2006. The show attracted media interest for its location, for the use of a painting satirising Sir
Nicholas Serota
Sir Nicholas Andrew Serota, (born 27 April 1946) is an English art historian and curator, who served as the Director of the Tate from 1988 to 2017. He is currently Chair of Arts Council England, a role which he has held since February 2017.
...
, Director of the
Tate gallery
Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
, and for two paintings of a stripper by
Charles Thomson
Charles Thomson (November 29, 1729 – August 16, 1824) was an Irish-born Patriot leader in Philadelphia during the American Revolution and the secretary of the Continental Congress (1774–1789) throughout its existence. As secretary, Thomson ...
based on his former wife, artist
Stella Vine
Stella Vine (born Melissa Jane Robson, 1969) is an English artist, who lives and works in London. Her work is figurative painting, with subjects drawn from personal life, as well as from rock stars, royalty, and other celebrities.
In 2001, she ...
.
Show
The Stuckists had previously been seen as art world outsiders, but with the backing of a West End gallery in a "major exhibition"
[Barnes, Anthony (2006]
"Portrait of an ex-husband's revenge"
''The Independent on Sunday
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was published ...
''. Retrieved 9 October 2006, from findarticles.com became "major players" in the art world.
[Teodorczuk, Tom (2006]
"Modern art is pants"
''Evening Standard
The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format.
In October 2009, after be ...
'', 22 August 2006. Retrieved 9 October 2006 from thisislondon.co.uk. Ten leading Stuckist artists were exhibited.
Royden Prior, the director of Spectrum London, said, "These artists are good and are part of history. Get past the art politics and look at the work."
["The first West End show for the Stuckists"]
saatchi-gallery.co.uk. Retrieved 9 October 2006"Stuckists art group in major show"
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
online, August 23, 2006. Retrieved October 9, 2006
Art critic
'', condemned the work as "empty of anything much" and "formulaic".
's paintings sold out, before the show opened, to buyers from the UK, Japan and the US.
, displayed in the gallery window (see image above), could be seen as revenge for the Tate's rejection of a Stuckist donation of 175 paintings the previous year.