The Romantic Anonymous Fellowship
Encyclopedia
Stuckism
Stuckism is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting in opposition to conceptual art...
painter Odysseus Yakoumakis
Odysseus Yakoumakis
Odysseus Yakoumakis is a Stuckist artist, painter and illustrator, based in Athens, Greece. He is the founder of the first Greek Stuckist group, The Romantic Anonymous Fellowship, and organiser of the first international Stuckist group show in Greece, Under the Cover of Romantic Anonymity...
on September 2004, as the first, and currently the only, Greek group of Stuckism International
Stuckism
Stuckism is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting in opposition to conceptual art...
. It has an international membership.
History
Odysseus YakoumakisOdysseus Yakoumakis
Odysseus Yakoumakis is a Stuckist artist, painter and illustrator, based in Athens, Greece. He is the founder of the first Greek Stuckist group, The Romantic Anonymous Fellowship, and organiser of the first international Stuckist group show in Greece, Under the Cover of Romantic Anonymity...
discovered Stuckism in July, 2004, while surfing the net, and saw in it an antidote to what he deems "the ailments of the contemporary Greek 'artscape'". He contacted Charles Thomson
Charles Thomson (artist)
Charles Thomson is an English artist, painter, poet and photographer. In the early 1980s he was a member of The Medway Poets. In 1999 he named and co-founded the Stuckists art movement with Billy Childish. He has curated Stuckist shows, organised demonstrations against the Turner Prize, run an art...
, the London founder of Stuckism, and a few days later founded The Romantic Anonymous Fellowship. He conceived this as a "Greek version of Stuckism, an antidote to contemporary Greek art's provincial
Provincial
Provincial may refer to:* Provincial capitals, an administrative sub-national capital of a country.* Provincial examinations, a school-leaving exam in British Columbia, Canada* A provincial superior of a religious order...
ism, sectarianism
Sectarianism
Sectarianism, according to one definition, is bigotry, discrimination or hatred arising from attaching importance to perceived differences between subdivisions within a group, such as between different denominations of a religion, class, regional or factions of a political movement.The ideological...
and servile importation of post-modernism". He developed the concept of "Romantic Stuckism", that is of "Stuckism with a good injection of Eleatic and Platonic philosophy, oriented rather towards encouraging each artist to pursue his/her genuinely personal artistic vision rather, than towards pointless polemics against the reactionary official art-establishment". He published the first two Romantic Stuckist theoretical texts on the Fellowship's website.
At that stage he was the Fellowship's only fellow and, as far as he knew, the only artist in Greece aware of the Stuckist movement. He contacted other fine artists in Athens, but described the reactions he got as "ranging from a tepid 'academic curiosity' to a sheer lack of interest or even, occasionally, to a politely concealed hostility." He was however contacted by artists from overseas and accepted them into the Fellowship. The first to apply was Ian J. Burkett, a painter living in London and founder of the Ealing Stuckists group. Shortly after, followed the painter and etcher Ilania Abileah from Canada, and the painter and etcher Anthe (who is of Greek descent) from the US.
Under the Cover of Romantic Anonymity
Yakoumakis determined that Stuckism should, nevertheless, be brought "in the flesh" before the eyes of the Greek fine arts community, and organised the first Stuckist event in Greece, titled Under the Cover of Romantic Anonymity, announced for May 14th of 2010 at the Ash-In-Art Gallery, Athens, Greece.In parallel with the show, the new book by Odysseus Yakoumakis will be featured, titled "Leaflets from the Wilderness (a case study about the artscape in nouveau-Greece and many other lands)" (Ash-In-Art Publications).
Stuckist artists taking part include:
- Ilania Abileah
- ANTHE
- Ian J. Burkett
- Odysseus Yakoumakis
Guest artists participating are:
- Ray Wilkins
- Lefteris Yakoumakis
- Vasilis Selimas
- Nickos Delijannis