OSWEGO, N.Y. - Sept. 25, 2024 - PRLog -- An engaging talk and book release, Making Friends With Wild Dogs, by Ron Throop marking the 25th year of Stuckism, an art movement founded in London in 1999 that addresses contemporary issues in art. Throop, a leading Stuckist in the United States, highlights his journey with this "radical" art movement. The writing and publishing of the book was funded in part by CNYArts.

There will be two presentations in Oswego County:

October 17, 7-8 p.m. at the Art Association of Oswego, 30 Barbara Donahue Drive

October 22, 7-8 p.m. at SUNY Oswego Penfield Library, classroom 215

The first 15 students at each venue will receive a free book.

Stuckism is a democratic art movent. It is a powerful tool to help obtain social equality in art. No CV (Correctly Vetted) document necessary. The work speaks for itself.
For too long the art establishment has kept culture divided by race, gender, age and socioeconomic placement. The Stuckist manifesto provides ideas through practice that make the bulk of dysfunction obsolete.
While this is mainly a book for artists, it also sets a bar for new ideas on art and artifice to be debated by everyone.

About the title, Making Friends With Wild Dogs:

"The Stuckist manifesto was still fresh off the press for less than a year when the same authors, Billy Childish and Charles Thomson published the first Stuckist document, Remodernism. It delved deeper into the need for a new spirituality in art to replace Post-modernism "…because of its failure to answer or address any important issues of being a human being". It is made up of 14 statements and a summary calling for a "spiritual renaissance" in art. The title of this book is taken from statement #8:

Spiritual art is not about fairyland. It is about taking hold of the rough texture of life. It is about addressing the shadow and making friends with wild dogs. Spirituality is the awareness that everything in life is for a higher purpose.

And a quote from the preface:

"So 25 years gone by. Stuckism is the only international art movement on earth worth talking about because there are millions of us. About a couple thousand identify their art as "Stuckist", and the other 3 million painters are lying to themselves to maintain the hope of established gallery or ARTnews representation. After reading the manifesto, any serious painter not working for the Pope, or stuffing a corpse sheep's head with microplastics, will make immediate connection to its truisms."