Sir Nicholas Serota Makes An Acquisitions Decision - Shows

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The painting was first exhibited in March 2000 at Joe Crompton's Gallery 108, Leonard Street, Shoreditch, London, as the highlight of the third Stuckist show, The Resignation of Sir Nicholas Serota, which included a display of paintings about Serota. A small black and white image appeared in the Daily Telegraph. It was displayed again in the Stuckists Real Turner Prize Show later in the year. Richard Dean wrote:

The painting was included in the show catalogue, a signed copy of which was left at the Tate for Serota by Thomson and Billy Childish, the co-founder of the Stuckists. Artist Ranko Bon described greeting Serota at the opening of that year's Turner Prize at Tate Britain:

"Ah," I grabbed him by his bony shoulders, "when I look at you like this, I cannot but see Charles Thomson's portrait of you, which I saw last night at The Real Turner Prize Show in Shoreditch." I emphasized the word "real" with all my might. "Yes," Nick beamed back at me without even blinking, "I must see it!"

It was exhibited in summer 2002 during The First Stuckist International, the inaugural show at Thomson's Stuckism International Gallery (which closed in 2005). Sarah Kent (a staunch advocate of Britart) said: "One might forgive his puerile humour if Thomson didn't consider it a serious weapon ... cut the ranting and Thomson could be a reasonable painter." Thomson pointed out in response, "it's reality. A few weeks after I did the painting, Tracey Emin was shown on TV getting very angry about an installation because someone had substituted another pair of knickers for hers ... That makes it a bit sad."

The painting was also shown at the 2004 Liverpool Biennial in The Stuckists Punk Victorian show at the Walker Art Gallery. Serota went to the show and commented that it was "lively", while standing next to Thomson's painting of him. John Russell Taylor started his review of the Biennial in The Times, "Say what you will about the Stuckists, they certainly know what they don’t like. In the eccentric British group’s latest show the most explicit target is clearly the Turner Prize: the attitude can be summed up in one painting, Charles Thomson’s Sir Nicholas Serota Makes an Acquisitions Decision". 160 paintings from the show, were offered as a donation to the Tate, including Thomson's painting of Serota, but "not surprisingly" rejected by Serota, who said, "We do not feel that the work is of sufficient quality in terms of accomplishment, innovation or originality of thought to warrant preservation in perpetuity in the national collection."

The painting was the centrepiece at Spectrum London gallery in September 2006 in the Go West exhibition and priced at £30,000. The show at Spectrum London was the Stuckists' first show in a commercial gallery in the West End of London. The Spectrum London director, Royden Prior, said people shouldn't just look at the politics, but should look beyond them because "These artists are good, and are part of art history," Jane Morris wrote in The Guardian, "If the stuckists go down in art history, and the jury is still out as to whether they will, Sir Nicholas Serota Makes an Acquisitions Decision by stuckist co-founder Charles Thomson may well become their signature piece." The Evening Standard said some people would see the display of the painting as revenge against Serota, after he had rejected the Stuckists' offer to donate work to the Tate; it also mentioned that the Stuckists had first drawn attention to the Tate's purchase of The Upper Room by Chris Ofili, a Tate trustee, which had led to the Tate being censured by the Charity Commission in 2006.