Members of a Finchley-based arts movement picketed the Turner Prize award ceremony at the Tate Britain gallery on Sunday night dressed as clowns.

The Stuckists mocked prizewinner Martin Creed's work which includes a light flickering on and off in an empty room by flashing torches at guests.

The group, which campaigns for traditional artistry, was co-founded by Charles Thomson, 48, of Oakdene Park, in 1999. It now has 40 branches in six continents.

Mr Creed, 33, whose other efforts include crumpled sheets of A4 paper and a blob of Blu-Tack, took home the coveted £20,000 prize despite competition from a blurred home video of a sleeping alcoholic and a homo-erotic film of two nude men.

"Last year the Turner Prize was scraping the bottom of the barrel this year the bottom has fallen out of the barrel," said Mr Thomson, who described the British art establishment as 'suffering from a nervous breakdown'.

"The lights are going on and off not only in that room but in quite a lot of important people's heads in my opinion," he said.

Previous protests by the Stuckists, so-called because Brit Art darling Traci Emin accused them of being stuck in the past, included handing out sheets of paper to passers-by and encouraging them to "make art".

They have also tried to present their paintings free to the influential Tate director Sir Nicholas Serota. He turned them down.

Mr Thomson said they had been overwhelmed by support from ordinary people but that many artists were too scared to back them publicly for the sake of their careers.

"This is a case of the emperor's new clothes there is a lot of fear in the art world," he added. "There are only a few people who can help an artist's career and most artists are afraid of offending these people."

December 13, 2001 12:30