Nicholas Serota

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For in spite of much greater public interest in all aspects of visual culture, including design and architecture, the challenge posed by contemporary art has not evaporated. We have only to recall the headlines for last year's Turner Prize. "Eminence without merit" (The Sunday Telegraph). "Tate trendies blow a raspberry" (Eastern Daily Press), and my favourite, "For 1,000 years art has been one of our great civilising forces. Today, pickled sheep and soiled bed threaten to make barbarians of us all" (The Daily Mail). Are these papers speaking the minds of their readers? I have no delusions. People may be attracted by the spectacle of new buildings, they may enjoy the social experience of visiting a museum, taking in the view, an espresso or glass of wine, purchasing a book or an artist designed t-shirt. Many are delighted to praise the museum, but remain deeply suspicious of the contents. [17]

Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour insignia Companion of Honour.jpg
Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour insignia

In 2016, Serota received a salary of between £165,000 and £169,999 from the Tate, making him one of the 328 most highly paid people in the UK public sector then, at the lower end of the senior officials 'high earners' list and well below what similar executives in public health, transport or government administrative top roles were earning. [18]

In 1998, Serota conceived "Operation Cobalt", the secret buy-back of two of the Tate's Turner paintings that had been stolen in 1994 while they were on loan to a gallery in Frankfurt. The paintings were recovered in 2000 and 2002.

In December 2005, Serota admitted that he had submitted an application form with false information to the Art Fund (NACF) for a £75,000 grant to go towards buying the painting The Upper Room, stating that the Tate had made no commitment to purchase the work (a requirement of the grant), whereas they had already paid a first instalment of £250,000 several months previously. He attributed this to "a failing in his head". The NACF allowed the Tate to keep the grant. [19] In 2006, the Charity Commission ruled the Tate had broken charity law (but not criminal law) [20] over the purchase and similar trustee purchases, including ones made before Serota's directorship. [21] The Daily Telegraph called the verdict "one of the most serious indictments of the running of one of the nation's major cultural institutions in living memory". In April 2008, Stuckist artist Charles Thomson started a petition on the Prime Minister's website against Serota's Tate directorship. [22]

In September 2016, the Tate announced that Serota would step down as director in 2017, and he would become director of Arts Council England, [3] for the term 1 February 2017 to 31 January 2025. [23] Serota was succeeded at the Tate by Maria Balshaw. [24]

Reactions

Serota has been criticised by Platform and Liberate Tate for inviting increased sponsorship of the Tate from BP. Their demands were supported by 8,000 Tate members and visitors, and artists including Conrad Atkinson. [25] When questioned about BP sponsorship during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Serota responded "We all recognise they have a difficulty at the moment but you don't abandon your friends because they have what we consider to be a temporary difficulty." [26]

The art critic Brian Sewell coined the critical phrase 'the Serota tendency' to refer to the popular BritArt movement of the 1990s that was favoured by Serota's Tate and collectors such as Charles Saatchi. [27] [28]

Since its formation in 1999, the Stuckist art group has campaigned against Serota, [29] who is the subject of the group's co-founder Charles Thomson's satirical painting Sir Nicholas Serota Makes an Acquisitions Decision (2000), [30] one of the best known Stuckist works [31] and a likely "signature piece" for the movement. [32] Serota was dubbed the "least likely visitor" to The Stuckists Punk Victorian show at the Walker Art Gallery in 2004, [33] which included a wall of work satirising him and the Tate, including Thomson's painting. [34] In fact, he did visit and met the artists, describing the work as "lively". [35] In 2005, the Stuckists offered 160 paintings from the Walker show as a donation to the Tate. Serota wrote to the Stuckists, [36] saying that the work was not of "sufficient quality in terms of accomplishment, innovation or originality of thought to warrant preservation in perpetuity in the national collection", and was accused of "snubbing one of Britain's foremost collections". [36]

In 2001, Stuart Pearson Wright, winner of that year's BP Portrait Award, said that Serota should be sacked, because of his advocacy of conceptual art and neglect of figurative painting. [37]

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Officier arts et lettres.jpg
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

Honours

Knighted in the 1999 New Year Honours [38] [39] [40] and appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2013 for "services to art", [41] [42] Serota is also an Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and a Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur. [43]

Personal life

In 1973, Serota married Angela Beveridge (divorced 1995), having two daughters, Anya and Beth. [44] [45] In 1997, he married Teresa Gleadowe, a curator and arts administrator, with whom he has two stepdaughters. [45] Sir Nicholas and Lady Serota divide their time between homes in King's Cross, London and Cornwall. [27]

Related Research Articles

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Stuckism is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting as opposed to conceptual art. By May 2017, the initial group of 13 British artists had expanded to 236 groups in 52 countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tate</span> Art museum in the United Kingdom

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 UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Remodernism</span> Present-day modernist philosophical movement

Remodernism is an artistic and philosophical movement aimed at reviving aspects of modernism, particularly in its early form, in a manner that both follows after and contrasts against postmodernism. The movement was initiated in 2000 by stuckists Billy Childish and Charles Thomson, with a manifesto, Remodernism in an attempt to introduce a period of new "spirituality" into art, culture and society to replace postmodernism, which they said was cynical and spiritually bankrupt. In 2002, a remodernism art show in Albuquerque was accompanied by an essay from University of California, Berkeley art professor, Kevin Radley, who said there was a renewal of artists working without the limitation of irony and cynicism, and that there was a renewal of the sense of beauty. Adherents of remodernism advocate it as a forward and radical, not reactionary, impetus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turner Prize</span> Annual prize presented to a British visual artist

The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible. The prize is awarded at Tate Britain every other year, with various venues outside of London being used in alternate years. Since its beginnings in 1984 it has become the UK's most publicised art award. The award represents all media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whitechapel Gallery</span> Art gallery in London

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Thomson (artist)</span> English artist, poet and photographer

Charles Thomson is an English artist, 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 gallery, stood for parliament and reported Charles Saatchi to the OFT. He is frequently quoted in the media as an opponent of conceptual art. He was briefly married to artist Stella Vine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Machine</span> English artist, poet and writer

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<i>The Stuckists Punk Victorian</i> 2004 art exhibition in Liverpool, England

The Stuckists Punk Victorian was the first national gallery exhibition of Stuckist art. It was held at the Walker Art Gallery and Lady Lever Art Gallery in Liverpool from 18 September 2004 to 20 February 2005 and was part of the 2004 Liverpool Biennial.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Bourne (artist)</span> British artist and painter (born 1943)

John Bourne is a British artist and painter, living and working in Wales, and a member of the Stuckists art movement. He founded the Wrexham Stuckists group in 2001 and has been exhibited in the group's shows since then, including The Stuckists Punk Victorian. He has also taken part in Stuckist demonstrations against the Turner Prize. The subject matter for his paintings, which are done in a simplified style, comes from his memories.

<i>The Upper Room</i> (paintings)

The Upper Room is an installation of 13 paintings of rhesus macaque monkeys by English artist Chris Ofili in a specially-designed room. It was bought by the Tate gallery in 2005 from the Victoria Miro Gallery and was the cause of a media furore after a campaign initiated by the Stuckist art group as Ofili was on the board of Tate trustees at the time of the purchase. In 2006 the Charity Commission censured the Tate for the purchase, but did not revoke it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stuckism in Australia</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stuckist demonstrations</span> Art group activities

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regan Tamanui</span> Australian artist

Regan Tamanui is an artist based in Melbourne, Australia. In October 2000, he founded the Melbourne Stuckists, the fourth Stuckist of the original Stuckist groups and the first outside the United Kingdom. He has also painted prolifically as a street artist under the tag name HA-HA.

<i>Go West</i> (exhibition)

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 gallery in October 2006. The show attracted media interest for its location, for the use of a painting satirising Sir Nicholas Serota, Director of the Tate gallery, and for two paintings of a stripper by Charles Thomson based on his former wife, artist Stella Vine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spectrum London</span>

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 in 2008.

<i>Sir Nicholas Serota Makes an Acquisitions Decision</i> 2000 painting by Charles Thomson

Sir Nicholas Serota Makes an Acquisitions Decision is one of the paintings that was made as a part of the Stuckism art movement, and is recognized as a "signature piece" for the movement. It was painted in 2000 by the Stuckism co-founder Charles Thomson, and has been exhibited in a number of shows since, as well as being featured on placards during Stuckist demonstrations against the Turner Prize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A Gallery</span>

The A Gallery was a contemporary art gallery in Wimbledon, London run by Fraser Kee Scott.

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Sir Nicholas Serota
CH
2006, Stuckist Turner Prize demo 2006 (1) crop.jpg
Serota in 2006
8th Director of the Tate
In office
1988–2017
Cultural offices
Preceded by Director of the Tate Gallery
1988–2016
Succeeded by
Preceded by Chairman, Arts Council England
2016–present
Incumbent