Editing Remodernism (section)

=== Origins and 2000 manifesto ===
[[Charles Thomson (artist)|Charles Thomson]] and [[Billy Childish]], the founders of the [[stuckism]] art movement, inaugurated the period of remodernism.<ref name=packer>Packer, William. "Childish artists coming unstuck", p.13, and "Young pretenders of art have much to learn", p. 20, ''[[Financial Times]]'', March 13, 2001. The text from different editions is the same: "Childish and his co-founder, Charles Thomson, ushered in remodernism, 'a period of art ... to reclaim the vision and spiritual values of the early Modernists and replace the ennui of Post-Modernism'."</ref> Their ''Remodernism'' manifesto was published on March 1, 2000 to promote vision, authenticity and self-expression, with an emphasis on painting, and subtitled "towards a new spirituality in art". Its premise is that the potential of the [[Modernism|modernist]] vision has not been fulfilled, that its development has been in the wrong direction and that this vision needs to be reclaimed, redefined and redeveloped. It advocates the search for truth, knowledge and meaning, and challenges [[formalism (art)|formalism]].

It has a short introduction, summing up: "Modernism has progressively lost its way, until finally toppling into the bottomless pit of Postmodern [[wikt:balderdash#English|balderdash]]." This is followed by 14 numbered points, stressing bravery, individuality, inclusiveness, communication, humanity and the perennial against nihilism, scientific materialism and the "brainless destruction of convention." Point 7 states:
{{quote|Spirituality is the journey of the soul on earth. Its first principle is a declaration of intent to face the truth. Truth is what it is, regardless of what we want it to be. Being a spiritual artist means addressing unflinchingly our projections, good and bad, the attractive and the grotesque, our strengths as well as our delusions, in order to know ourselves and thereby our true relationship with others and our connection to the divine.}}
Point 9 states: "Spiritual art is not religion. Spirituality is humanity's quest to understand itself and finds its symbology through the clarity and integrity of its artists." Point 12 links its use of the word "God" to enthusiasm&mdash;from the Greek root ''en theos'' (to be possessed by God).

The summary at the end starts, "It is quite clear to anyone of an uncluttered mental disposition that what is now put forward, quite seriously, as art by the ruling elite, is proof that a seemingly rational development of a body of ideas has gone seriously awry," and finds the solution is a spiritual renaissance because "there is nowhere else for art to go. Stuckism's mandate is to initiate that spiritual renaissance now."<ref>Childish, Billy, and Thomson, Charles. [http://www.stuckism.com/remod.html "Remodernism"], stuckism.com, March 1, 2000. Accessed 12 September 2007.</ref>

{{Multiple image
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| image1 = Photograph of Billy Childish by Charles Thomson.jpg
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| caption1 = {{center|[[Billy Childish]]}}
| image2 = Photograph of Charles Thomson.jpg
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| caption2 = {{center|[[Charles Thomson (artist)|Charles Thomson]]}}
| footer = In 1999, Childish and Thomson wrote a remodernism manifesto, calling for a period of new spirituality in art, culture and society to replace [[postmodernism]].
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Childish and Thomson sent their remodernism manifesto to [[Nicholas Serota|Sir Nicholas Serota]], Director of the [[Tate Gallery]], who replied, "You will not be surprised to learn that I have no comment to make on your letter, or your manifesto ''Remodernism''."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20021221052217/http://www.hatii.arts.gla.ac.uk/MultimediaStudentProjects/00-01/9704524l/MM%20Project/Html/stuck2.htm "Stuck on the Turner Prize: Send in the clowns"], [[University of Glasgow]]. Retrieved from [[Internet Archive]] cache of 21 December 2002.</ref><ref>Kennedy, Maeve [https://www.theguardian.com/turner1999/Story/0,,387268,00.html "Shock of the old as paint returns to the Turner Prize"], ''[[The Guardian]]'', 24 October 2000. Accessed 12 September 2007.</ref>