Michael Craig-Martin
Encyclopedia
Michael Craig-Martin RA (born Dublin, 28 August 1941) is a contemporary
conceptual art
ist and painter. He is noted for his fostering of the Young British Artists
, many of whom he taught, and for his conceptual art
work, An Oak Tree
. He is Emeritus Professor of Fine Art at Goldsmiths.
of work by Mark Rothko
.
Craig-Martin studied in the Lycée Français in Bogotá
, Colombia
, where his father had employment for a while. Drawing classes in the Lycée by an artist, Antonio Roda, gave him a wider perspective on art, and in later years he observed that his experience of art in school in Washington had been a very rigid and limited one. His parents had no inclination to art, though they did have on display in their home Picasso's Greedy Child. Back in Washington, he attended drawing classes given there by artists, then in 1959 attended Fordham University
in New York for English Literature and History, while also starting to paint.
In the summer of 1961, he studied art at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière
in Paris, and in the fall began a painting course at Yale College
, where the teaching was strongly influenced by the multi-disciplinary experimentation and minimalist theories on colour and form of Josef Albers
, a former head of department. Craig-Martin later said, "Everything I know about colour comes from that course." Tutors on the course included artists, Alex Katz
and Al Held
.
. The work consists of a glass of water standing on a shelf attached to the gallery wall next to which is a text using a semiotic argument to explain why it is in fact an oak tree
. Nevertheless, on one occasion when it was barred by Australian Customs officials from entering the country as vegetation, he was forced to explain it was really a glass of water. The work was bought by the National Gallery of Australia
in 1977; however, the Tate
gallery has an artist's copy.
, Department of Art, he was a significant influence on the emerging YBA generation, including Damien Hirst
. He was also helpful in promoting the Freeze
show to established art-world figures.
He was a subject for an article in the Observer
regarding the mentors of British art, it was entitled Schools of Thought and described his influence in greater detail.
, minimal construction by the artist and the use of readymade techniques inspired by Marcel Duchamp
had a marked impression on his students, as did an educational structure based on multi-media, removing traditional departmental demarcations such as "painting", "sculpture" and "time-based [film] media".
Craig-Martin's later works have used a stylised drawing technique often depicting everyday household objects and sometimes incorporating art references, such as objects known from their use in Dada
artworks. His work can be compared to that of his earlier contemporary Patrick Caulfield
and latterly with that of Julian Opie
. There is no differentiation in treatment, which consists of black line drawings with lines of equal mechanical width and brightly coloured images, which have been compared to "nursery" colours. The work is done on canvas with (acrylic) paint or with other methods, such as using black tape to make the lines. In the Intelligence show at Tate Britain
he completed an entire room in this fashion.
Craig-Martin has been a trustee of the Tate Gallery
and is a trustee of the National Art Collections Fund
.
in London in 1989. In 2006, the Irish Museum of Modern Art
presented “Michael Craig-Martin: Works 1964-2006” which included works from over 40 years of Craig-Martin’s career. The exhibition showed around 50 paintings, sculptures, wall drawings, neon works and text pieces by the artist, covering everything from his sculptures to digital works. One of his works called On the Table (1970) involved four metal buckets suspended on a table, exemplifying the influence of Minimalism
and Conceptualism
had on Craig-Martin. An Oak Tree
(1973), consisting of an ordinary glass of water on an equally plain shelf, with a text by Craig-Martin that asserts the superiority of the artist’s intention over the object itself is now recognized as a turning point in the development of conceptual art; very different remarks from its original views which were surprise and sometimes scorn.
He is represented internationally by Gagosian Gallery
and Alan Cristea Gallery
in London.
Contemporary art
Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...
conceptual art
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
ist and painter. He is noted for his fostering of the Young British Artists
Young British Artists
Young British Artists or YBAs is the name given to a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London, in 1988...
, many of whom he taught, and for his conceptual art
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
work, An Oak Tree
An Oak Tree
An Oak Tree is a conceptual work of art created by Michael Craig-Martin RA in 1973. The piece consists of two units; an object, a glass of water on a glass shelf, and a text...
. He is Emeritus Professor of Fine Art at Goldsmiths.
Early life
Michael Craig-Martin was born to Irish parents, Paul and Rhona, both devout Catholics, who lived in London, where his father worked as an agricultural economist for the British Ministry of Food. They wanted their son to be born in Ireland, and went to Dublin for the birth to take place, then returned to London. In 1945, the family moved to Washington D.C. In the U.S. he was given a religious education, initially for eight years in a Roman Catholic school run by nuns, and then in the English Benedictine Priory School, where pupils were encouraged to look at religious imagery in illuminated glass panels and stained-glass windows. He gained an interest in art through one of the priests, who was an artist, and was also strongly impressed by a display in the Phillips CollectionPhillips Collection
The Phillips Collection is an art museum founded by Duncan Phillips in 1921 as the Phillips Memorial Gallery located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Phillips was the grandson of James H...
of work by Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko, born Marcus Rothkowitz , was a Russian-born American painter. He is classified as an abstract expressionist, although he himself rejected this label, and even resisted classification as an "abstract painter".- Childhood :Mark Rothko was born in Dvinsk, Vitebsk Province, Russian...
.
Craig-Martin studied in the Lycée Français in Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, where his father had employment for a while. Drawing classes in the Lycée by an artist, Antonio Roda, gave him a wider perspective on art, and in later years he observed that his experience of art in school in Washington had been a very rigid and limited one. His parents had no inclination to art, though they did have on display in their home Picasso's Greedy Child. Back in Washington, he attended drawing classes given there by artists, then in 1959 attended Fordham University
Fordham University
Fordham University is a private, nonprofit, coeducational research university in the United States, with three campuses in and around New York City. It was founded by the Roman Catholic Diocese of New York in 1841 as St...
in New York for English Literature and History, while also starting to paint.
In the summer of 1961, he studied art at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière
Académie de la Grande Chaumière
The Académie de la Grande Chaumière is an art school in the VIe arrondissement of Paris, France. The school was founded in 1902 by the Swiss Martha Stettler , who refused to teach the strict academic rules of painting of the École des Beaux-Arts. It opened the way to the "Art Indépendant"...
in Paris, and in the fall began a painting course at Yale College
Yale College
Yale College was the official name of Yale University from 1718 to 1887. The name now refers to the undergraduate part of the university. Each undergraduate student is assigned to one of 12 residential colleges.-Residential colleges:...
, where the teaching was strongly influenced by the multi-disciplinary experimentation and minimalist theories on colour and form of Josef Albers
Josef Albers
Josef Albers was a German-born American artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the 20th century....
, a former head of department. Craig-Martin later said, "Everything I know about colour comes from that course." Tutors on the course included artists, Alex Katz
Alex Katz
Alex Katz is an American figurative artist associated with the Pop art movement. In particular, he is known for his paintings, sculptures, and prints and is represented by numerous galleries internationally.-Life and work:...
and Al Held
Al Held
Al Held was an American Abstract expressionist painter. He was particularly well known for his large scale Hard-edge paintings.-Background and education:...
.
An Oak Tree
In 1974, he exhibited the seminal piece An Oak TreeAn Oak Tree
An Oak Tree is a conceptual work of art created by Michael Craig-Martin RA in 1973. The piece consists of two units; an object, a glass of water on a glass shelf, and a text...
. The work consists of a glass of water standing on a shelf attached to the gallery wall next to which is a text using a semiotic argument to explain why it is in fact an oak tree
Oak Tree
Oak Tree may refer to:*Oak, the tree*Oak Tree, County Durham, a village in County Durham, England*The Oaktree Foundation, a youth-run aid and development agency*Oak Tree National, golf club in Edmond, Oklahoma...
. Nevertheless, on one occasion when it was barred by Australian Customs officials from entering the country as vegetation, he was forced to explain it was really a glass of water. The work was bought by the National Gallery of Australia
National Gallery of Australia
The National Gallery of Australia is the national art gallery of Australia, holding more than 120,000 works of art. It was established in 1967 by the Australian government as a national public art gallery.- Establishment :...
in 1977; however, the Tate
Tate
-Places:*Tate, Georgia, a town in the United States*Tate County, Mississippi, a county in the United States*Táté, the Hungarian name for Totoi village, Sântimbru Commune, Alba County, Romania*Tate, Filipino word for States...
gallery has an artist's copy.
Young British Artists
In the 1980s, Craig-Martin was a tutor at Goldsmiths CollegeGoldsmiths College
Goldsmiths, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom which specialises in the arts, humanities and social sciences, and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It was founded in 1891 as Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute...
, Department of Art, he was a significant influence on the emerging YBA generation, including Damien Hirst
Damien Hirst
Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists , who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly Britain's richest living artist,...
. He was also helpful in promoting the Freeze
Freeze (exhibition)
Freeze is the title of an art exhibition that took place in July 1988 in an empty London Port Authority building at Surrey Docks in London Docklands. Its main organiser was Damien Hirst. It was significant in the subsequent development of the Young British Artists.-Organisation:Freeze was...
show to established art-world figures.
He was a subject for an article in the Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
regarding the mentors of British art, it was entitled Schools of Thought and described his influence in greater detail.
Style
Craig-Martin's style of detached conceptualismConceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
, minimal construction by the artist and the use of readymade techniques inspired by Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Considered by some to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century, Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art...
had a marked impression on his students, as did an educational structure based on multi-media, removing traditional departmental demarcations such as "painting", "sculpture" and "time-based [film] media".
Craig-Martin's later works have used a stylised drawing technique often depicting everyday household objects and sometimes incorporating art references, such as objects known from their use in Dada
Dada
Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...
artworks. His work can be compared to that of his earlier contemporary Patrick Caulfield
Patrick Caulfield
Patrick Joseph Caulfield, CBE, RA was an English painter and printmaker known for his bold canvases, which often incorporated elements of Photorealism within a pared down scene.-Life and work:...
and latterly with that of Julian Opie
Julian Opie
Julian Opie is a visual artist, and one of the New British Sculpture movement.-Life and work:Julian Opie was raised in Oxford, England, where he attended the Dragon School and Magdalen College School. He attended Goldsmith's School of Art in London from 1979-82...
. There is no differentiation in treatment, which consists of black line drawings with lines of equal mechanical width and brightly coloured images, which have been compared to "nursery" colours. The work is done on canvas with (acrylic) paint or with other methods, such as using black tape to make the lines. In the Intelligence show at Tate Britain
Tate Britain
Tate Britain is an art gallery situated on Millbank in London, and part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is the oldest gallery in the network, opening in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the works of J. M. W. Turner.-History:It...
he completed an entire room in this fashion.
Craig-Martin has been a trustee of the Tate Gallery
Tate Gallery
The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
and is a trustee of the National Art Collections Fund
National Art Collections Fund
The Art Fund is an independent membership-based British charity, which raises funds to aid the acquisition of artworks for the nation. It gives grants and acts as a channel for many gifts and bequests, as well as lobbying on behalf of museums and galleries and their users...
.
Retrospective shows
A retrospective of his work took place at the Whitechapel GalleryWhitechapel Gallery
The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, it was founded in 1901 as one of the first publicly-funded galleries for temporary exhibitions in London, and it has a long...
in London in 1989. In 2006, the Irish Museum of Modern Art
Irish Museum of Modern Art
The Irish Museum of Modern Art also known as IMMA, is Ireland's leading national institution exhibiting and collecting modern and contemporary art. The museum opened in May 1991 and is located in Royal Hospital Kilmainham, a 17th-century building near Heuston Station to the west of Dublin's city...
presented “Michael Craig-Martin: Works 1964-2006” which included works from over 40 years of Craig-Martin’s career. The exhibition showed around 50 paintings, sculptures, wall drawings, neon works and text pieces by the artist, covering everything from his sculptures to digital works. One of his works called On the Table (1970) involved four metal buckets suspended on a table, exemplifying the influence of Minimalism
Minimalism
Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts...
and Conceptualism
Conceptualism
Conceptualism is a philosophical theory that explains universality of particulars as conceptualized frameworks situated within the thinking mind. Intermediate between Nominalism and Realism, the conceptualist view approaches the metaphysical concept of universals from a perspective that denies...
had on Craig-Martin. An Oak Tree
An Oak Tree
An Oak Tree is a conceptual work of art created by Michael Craig-Martin RA in 1973. The piece consists of two units; an object, a glass of water on a glass shelf, and a text...
(1973), consisting of an ordinary glass of water on an equally plain shelf, with a text by Craig-Martin that asserts the superiority of the artist’s intention over the object itself is now recognized as a turning point in the development of conceptual art; very different remarks from its original views which were surprise and sometimes scorn.
He is represented internationally by Gagosian Gallery
Gagosian Gallery
Gagosian Gallery is a contemporary art gallery owned and directed by Larry Gagosian. There are currently eleven gallery spaces: three in New York; two in London; one in each of Beverly Hills, Rome, Athens, Paris, Geneva, Hong Kong and Moscow.-1980s:...
and Alan Cristea Gallery
Alan Cristea Gallery
Alan Cristea Gallery is a commercial art gallery on London's Cork Street, founded in 1995 by Alan Cristea. It is the largest publisher and distributor of prints in Europe.-History:...
in London.