She attended part-time classes at the private Hampstead School of Art in 1999 and began to paint members of her family, as well as celebrities who fascinated her, such as Mike Leigh, PJ Harvey and Sylvia Plath. In June 2001 she was exhibited for the first time, in the Vote Stuckist show by the Stuckists art group, with work she had done at Hampstead School of Art."The transformation of Stella Vine's art" stuckism.com. Accessed April 24, 2006 She participated in the group's activities and took part in a demonstration in Trafalgar Square. In August 2001 she married Charles Thomson, co-founder of the Stuckists, in New York. They did not live together, and separated after eight weeks. She severed all connection with the Stuckists before the end of the year and has since stated that she considers her involvement was a mistake.

Recognition

The combination of Saatchi, Princess Diana and the fact that the painting had been bought for only £600 from an unknown artist, who was a single mother and an ex-stripper, provided an irresistible cause célèbre for the mass media. Saatchi discovered the painting in a show called Girl on Girl in Cathy Lomax's Transition Gallery, which is housed in a converted garage in Hackney. Vine had originally wanted to price the painting at £100.

Vine and Lomax described this painting:

Stella Vine's work deals with her fascination with the trashy and the dark. Underlying this is a sometimes contradictory love for her subjects. Hi Paul Can You Come Over... examines that pivotal moment in the standing of the British Monarchy, the death of Princess Diana and the horror of her crash. All the conspiracy theories are summed up in this painting as a wild eyed and tiara clad Diana cries for help whilst painterly blood drips from her luscious lips.Cathy Lomax blog February 19, 2004 Retrieved April 1, 2006

A subsequent purchase by Charles Saatchi of Vine's painting of Rachel Whitear (also with blood dripping from the mouth) continued the controversy, as the former drug user's body was due for exhumation. Vine refused to acquiesce to the parents' request, backed by the police, not to exhibit the painting, then on view in the Saatchi Gallery in the perhaps unfortunately named New Blood show. (Saatchi had delegated the decision to her.)

Vine's promotion by Saatchi brought an angry reaction from the Stuckists who claimed that her work had been influenced by theirs, and that both she and Saatchi were benefiting from their ideas without due acknowledgement. Vine hotly disputed that there had been any influence. She and former husband Thomson engaged in artistic and personal recriminations in the media. Thomson reported Saatchi to the OFT (Office of Fair Trading) but the complaint was dismissed. When Saatchi did not include Vine in his Triumph of Painting shows in 2005, The Independent newspaper suggested that this was the result of his embarrassment over the Stuckist furore. Vine said that there was not a rift and that Saatchi had commissioned her for more work.

The sudden exposure to media attention and often virulent criticism left Vine confused, depressed and even suicidal, as well as in financial difficulties. Despite her new-found fame she was forced to sell her gallery. She travelled abroad to escape the pressure of publicity and taught art to children in Spain. She moved back to her home town of Alnwick (where she presented work to the local Bailiffgate museum), and then to a flat near the British Museum in London. She emerged from this uncertain period with a series of successful solo shows in Israel, Los Angeles, London & New York, and group shows including the Prague Biennale II 2005.

In 2005 she had a sell-out show Stellawood at Tim Jefferies' Hamilton Gallery in West London. Then her painting Hi Paul Can You Come Over was nominated as one of the ten worst paintings in Britain in The Guardian. Shortly after, a new painting of Princess Diana, Murdered, Pregnant and Embalmed, by Vine was bought by George Michael for £25,000, according to The Sun newspaper which condemned it as "sick". An image of Kate Moss, Holy Water Cannot Help You Now, has been widely reproduced in the media. Moss has also appeared in other Vine paintings showing images of the model's alleged cocaine use. Vine herself admitted to a three-month cocaine addiction, brought on by the pressure of work.

She now lives in a flat in Bloomsbury, opposite the British Museum, feeling at home with the historic character of the area. She continues with an erratic, bohemian life, using a local cafe as her office, preferring to buy a new dress rather than have curtains, and throwing away her knickers after wearing them once.

She has reacted against her experiences in the commercial gallery world, saying, "The art world is really exactly the same as the sex industry: you have to be completely on guard, you will get shafted, fucked over left, right and centre." As a result, she is re-opening her Rosy Wilde gallery, this time on the first floor above the first Ann Summers sex shop in Soho.Smith, David (2006)"Art? It's like the sex trade" The Observer April 23, 2006. Accessed online April 24, 2006

Criticism

See also

• Saatchi Gallery
• Transition Gallery
• Cathy Lomax
• Charles Thomson
• Stuckism

References