Drawing

"'Drawing' was conceived by Michael Craig-Martin and designed by Peter Willberg" [colophon].

“I made the first drawings here in 1978, the most recent a few months ago. All are of man-made objects, mostly mass-produced, immediately familiar in the contemporary world.” … “The order of the drawings in this book is neither chronological nor alphabetical nor according to categories, but entirely random. This is how they exist for me.” (p.[1]).

Sir Michael Craig-Martin began making line drawings of ordinary objects in 1978, and has continued to add to this vocabulary of images to the present day. All are of man-made objects, mostly mass-produced, immediately familiar in the contemporary world. They have been at the core of most of his work since 1978. Unlike a drawing produced on paper they do not exist as unique images. As the artist explains:

“In the early days I drew each object in pencil on paper and traced it in fine tape on acetate. I then destroyed the pencil drawings. Since the mid-’90s I have drawn directly on a computer using the mouse as pencil. No hard copy exists unless I print or paint one. In the beginning I intended my drawings to look as styleless as possible, without any hint of my personal intervention, but after making hundreds over the years it became clear that they did have a style, which is now recognisable as my style. In a sense this can be seen not as a book of reproductions, but of originals.” [Publisher's website].