Prague's stuckists are exhibiting their paintings

Alena Kupčíková: Viktorie (2002)

Prague - Today, an exhibition of artists who call themselves stuckists began at the Artpro gallery on Revoluční Street. Following the example of their foreign counterparts, they prefer traditional painting and sculpture as their means of expression and completely reject conceptual art. For the current exhibition, which they titled Endangered Species, they also invited some guests.
     One of them is Alena Kupčíková, the author of paintings created from human hair or painted with it. She has been creating and exhibiting such works for several years, using hair obtained from artists for the current exhibition. Other exhibitions are held by Jaroslav Valečka, Markéta Urbanová, Jiří Hauschka, Jaromír 99, and Zuzana Beránková, founding members of the domestic group of stuckists.
     Stuckists emerged in the late 1990s in London as a group united by their detachment from conceptual art. They derived their name from the word "stuck," which refers to being stuck or trapped, ironically naming their entrapment in artistic history. Today, stuckist groups exist in many countries, and in 2004, a Czech branch of the stuckist movement called Prague stuckists was formed.
     The two basic principles of stuckism are a clear preference for painting as an artistic means of expression and a resistance to conceptual art. According to them, a common object is often considered a work of art simply because it is declared as such by a critically recognized artist.
     Over time, the purely painting movement has expanded to include photographers and filmmakers; however, they also define themselves against conceptualism. Stuckists have also gained fame with their demonstrations against the Turner Prize, which they hold annually outside the Tate Modern gallery in London. Czech stuckists, on the other hand, confront the local Chalupecký Prize.