BritArt critics get West End show

The Stuckists derided works by artists like Tracey Emin (painting pictured) as 'pants'. Picture / Reuters

LONDON - They famously derided BritArt as "pants" and have demanded the resignation of Sir Nicholas Serota, the director of the Tate Gallery.

Now the Stuckists, the group of figurative painters who oppose conceptual art - are to use their first-ever show in a commercial West End gallery to further ridicule the Tate director.

The centre piece of the exhibition will be Charles Thomson's painting of Sir Nicholas examining a pair of red underpants handing from a clothes line - a send-up of Tracey Emin's unmade bed which was nominated for the Turner Prize.

In the picture, called Sir Nicholas Serota Makes An Acquisitions Decision, the Tate director asks: "Is it a genuine Emin (£10,000) or a worthless fake?"

Mr Thomson, the group's co-founder, described the exhibition as "a major development" in the recognition of the Stuckist movement and said the continuing feud with Sir Nicholas was part of a "battle of ideas" about what is important in art.

He likened the group's treatment to that of the Impressionists.

"I cannot believe how history repeats itself. There are many parallels between us and the Impressionists. They started out and everyone ridiculed them. We said that beds are not art, paintings are art and everyone laughed at us. People thought we hadn't got a clue. But a lot has happened in seven years and we are finally getting recognition."

The Stuckists, Sir Nicholas and the Tate have a long history.

It was the Stuckists who first exposed the Tate's improper payment of £700,000 ($2,073,000) to Chris Ofili, one of the Tate's trustees, which led to the gallery being censured by the Charity Commission last month.

The embarrassment of Sir Nicholas Serota and Tate Modern was brought about by Mr Thomson who obtained minutes of the Tate trustees meetings under the Freedom of Information Act.

This led to the Charity Commission's fierce condemnation of the Tate's purchase of Ofili's 13 paintings collectively entitled The Upper Room. This came after Sir Nicholas declined an offer by the Stuckists last year to donate 175 of their paintings to the Tate.

Since 2000 the Stuckists have demonstrated outside Tate Britain against the Turner Prize and have been critical of Sir Nicholas' role.

In 2000 they held a exhibition called The Resignation of Sir Nicholas Serota.

"He has come to embody the value of the Tate," Mr Thomson said.

"Chairmen and trustees come and go but Serota stays on. Basically the Tate is full of his personal choice of work. He has a mission to convert everyone to his way of thinking. The Tate is a public body and every year with the Turner prize it says this is the best of modern art. We strongly disagree."

The Stuckists latest exhibition , entitled Go West, opens at the Spectrum Gallery in Mayfair in October.

Also on show in Go West are punk guitarist Paul Harvey's portraits of Charlotte Church and Nigella Lawson, wife of art collector Charles Saatchi.

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