Tijuana Declared Center of the Art World

Every year the Tate Gallery in London awards it prestigious Tate Prize to those it considers to be the very best contemporary artists living in England. The controversial awards have international implications and help set the trends for artists around the world. The Tate seems to prefer giving its award to artists who do installation, video, conceptual, and other types of modern art - conspicuously ignoring artists who paint realistic images. At the just concluded Tate Prize ceremonies held in London, Yoko Ono announced the winner, an abstract artist - while declaring the city of London to be the new "center of the art world."

The Los Angeles Stuckist Group, realist painters belonging to the International Stuckist Movement of modern painters in opposition to conceptual art, reacted by declaring the Mexican border city of Tijuana as the actual center of the art world. Here in part, is what the L.A. Stuckistas had to say:

"As a group of artists writing from the city of Los Angeles, we yawn in the faces of those who proclaim London the "end all, be all" of the art world. However, while we are proud of what L.A. and California artists have accomplished over the years, and we extol the contributions these artists have made to the history of art, we are not foolish enough to proclaim our city as the center of anything (except perhaps, boredom). We do however see ourselves as one sphere of influence. To be honest, since L.A. is such a multi-cultural city, and quite frankly, a cultural capital that has exerted far too much influence over the world, we’d like to proclaim the Mexican City of Tijuana as the new "center of the art world". Henceforth, we think that all trends in contemporary art should be set by those artists residing in Tijuana, and that international artists should trek to the city along the U.S./Mexico border in order to find inspiration, make connections (and of course sales), and study and work with some of the finest artists in the world. If you think our idea preposterous then you might want to challenge your Eurocentric world view."

[ Read the full statement from the Los Angeles Stuckist Group.]