Sir Michael Craig-Martin | Artist | Royal Academy of Arts

Sir Michael Craig-Martin RA (b. 1941)

Michael Craig-Martin grew up and was educated in the United States. He studied Fine Art at the Yale University School of Art and Architecture and, on completion of his studies in 1966, he moved to London where he has lived ever since. His early work drew together a variety of objects and materials and questioned the nature of art and representation. An Oak Tree, 1973, is one of his best-known early works. His more recent work, which includes painting, printmaking, site-specific installations, drawing, and digital pieces, continues to depict common place objects.

Craig-Martin had his first solo exhibition at the Rowan Gallery in London in 1969. Since then he has shown regularly both in the UK and internationally. Most notably there have been three major retrospectives of his work – at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1989, the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin in 2006, and at the Serpentine Gallery in 2015. He has had solo exhibitions in public galleries in Germany, France, Ireland, Poland, Austria, Spain, China and South Korea. Group exhibitions include the British conceptual exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in 1972, The New Art, and the 1996 exhibition Un siecle de sculpture anglaise at the Jeu de Paume in Paris. He was the British representative at the São Paulo Biennial in 1998. He was awarded a CBE in 2001 and was knighted in 2016 in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for his services to art. He was Trustee of the Tate Gallery from 1989 until 1999 and of the Art Fund from 2005 until 2015.

Craig-Martin is also widely recognised as an effective and influential teacher. His teaching career started in 1966, but it is his period at Goldsmiths College, London, for which he is best known. His former students include many of those artists who made such a significant impact on the art scene in the 1990s; these include Damien Hirst, Gary Hume and Sarah Lucas.

He has curated exhibitions, including Drawing the Line, which toured venues including the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1995, and the 247th Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2015. He has also published many articles, essays and the book, On Being an Artist (2015).

Profile

Royal Academician

Painter

Born: 1941 in Dublin

Nationality: Irish

Elected RA: 12 December 2006

Elected Senior RA: 1 October 2015

Gender: Male

Preferred media: Painting, Sculpture, and Printmaking

Works by Sir Michael Craig-Martin in the RA Collection

1 results

Sir Michael Craig-Martin RA

Self-Portrait (Aqua), 2007

Acrylic on aluminium

Gallery

Michael Craig-Martin, An Oak Tree, 1973.

Q: To begin with, could you describe this work?
A: Yes, of course. What I’ve done is change a glass of water into a full-grown oak tree without altering the accidents of the glass of water.
Q: The accidents?
A: Yes. The colour, feel, weight, size …
Q: Do you mean that the glass of water is a symbol of an oak tree?
A: No. It’s not a symbol. I’ve changed the physical substance of the glass of water into that of an oak tree.
Q: It looks like a glass of water …
A: Of course it does. I didn’t change its appearance. But it’s not a glass of water. It’s an oak tree.
Q: Can you prove what you claim to have done?
A: Well, yes and no. I claim to have maintained the physical form of the glass of water and, as you can see, I have. However, as one normally looks for evidence of physical change in terms of altered form, no such proof exists.
Q: Haven’t you simply called this glass of water an oak tree?
A: Absolutely not. It is not a glass of water any more. I have changed its actual substance. It would no longer be accurate to call it a glass of water. One could call it anything one wished but that would not alter the fact that it is an oak tree.
Q: Isn’t this just a case of the emperor’s new clothes?
A: No. With the emperor’s new clothes people claimed to see something which wasn’t there because they felt they should. I would be very surprised if anyone told me they saw an oak tree.
Q: Was it difficult to effect the change?
A: No effort at all. But it took me years of work before I realized I could do it.
Q: When precisely did the glass of water become an oak tree?
A: When I put water in the glass.
Q: Does this happen every time you fill a glass with water?
A: No, of course not. Only when I intend to change it into an oak tree.
Q: Then intention causes the change?
A: I would say it precipitates the change.
Q: You don’t know how you do it?
A: It contradicts what I feel I know about cause and effect.
Q: It seems to me you’re claiming to have worked a miracle. Isn’t that the case?
A: I’m flattered that you think so.
Q: But aren’t you the only person who can do something like this?
A: How could I know?
Q: Could you teach others to do it?
A: No. It’s not something one can teach.
Q: Do you consider that changing the glass of water into an oak tree constitutes an artwork?
A: Yes.
Q: What precisely is the artwork? The glass of water?
A: There is no glass of water any more.
Q: The process of change?
A: There is no process involved in the change.
Q: The oak tree?
A: Yes. the oak tree.
Q: But the oak tree only exists in the mind.
A: No. The actual oak tree is physically present but in the form of the glass of water. As the glass of water was a particular glass of water, the oak tree is also particular. To conceive the category ‘oak tree’ or to picture a particular oak tree is not to understand and experience what appears to be a glass of water as an oak tree. Just as it is imperceivable, it is also inconceivable.
Q: Did the particular oak tree exist somewhere else before it took the form of the glass of water?
A: No. This particular oak tree did not exist previously. I should also point out that it does not and will not ever have any other form but that of a glass of water.
Q: How long will it continue to be an oak tree?
A: Until I change it..

Glass, water, metal and printed text on paper. 15 x 46 x 14 cm. Artist’s proof, shown with permission of the National Gallery of Australia. © Michael Craig-Martin. Image courtesy Gagosian..

Michael Craig-Martin, Untitled (Red), 1988.

Venetian blinds. 182.9 x 182.9 x 3.2 cm. Courtesy the artist. © Michael Craig-Martin. Photo: Krakow Witkin Gallery. Image courtesy of Cristea Roberts Gallery.

Michael Craig-Martin, Reconstructing Seurat (purple), 2004.

Acrylic on aluminium. 187 x 280 cm. Private collection. © Michael Craig-Martin. Image courtesy Gagosian..

Michael Craig-Martin, Laura Burlington, 2009.

Bespoke software and vector artwork. 125.7 x 74.9 x 12.1 cm. Artist's proof, shown with permission of The Devonshire Collections, Chatsworth. © Michael Craig-Martin. Image courtesy Gagosian.

Michael Craig-Martin, Credit card, 2017.

Hand-applied black crepe tape on drafting film with fuchsia backing sheet. 84.2 x 60 cm. Cristea Roberts Gallery, London. © Michael Craig-Martin. Image courtesy Cristea Roberts Gallery.

Michael Craig-Martin, Untitled (painting), 2010.

Acrylic on aluminium. 200 x 350 cm. Courtesy Gagosian. © Michael Craig-Martin. Photo: Dave Morgan. Image courtesy Gagosian.

Selected CV
- Recent Solo Exhibitions
  
  2023 Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco
  2023 Carling Dalenson Gallery, Stockholm
  2022 Cristea Roberts Gallery, London
  2022 Hangaram Art Museum, Seoul
  2019 Gagosian Gallery, London
  2017 Cristea Roberts Gallery, London
  2016 Galerie Andres Thalmann, Zurich
  2015 Serpentine Gallery, London
  2015 Himalayas Museum, Shanghai
  2015 Hubei Art Museum, Wuhan
  2014 Chatsworth House, Derbyshire
  2013 Museum Haus Esters, Krefeld, Germany
  2013 Galerie Andres Thalmann, Zurich
  2012 Rugby Art Gallery and Museum, Rugby
  2012 Galerie Andres Thalmann, Zürich
  2011 Alan Cristea, London
  2011 New Art Centre, Roche Court, near Salisbury
  2011 Alan Cristea Gallery, London
  2011 New Art Centre, Roche Court, Wiltshire
  2010 Gagosian Gallery, Athens
  2010 The Goss-Michael Foundation, Dallas
  2009 Galerie Haas & Fuchs, Berlin
  2009 PKM Trinity Gallery, Seoul
  2008 Alan Cristea, London
  2008 The Columns, Seoul
  2007 Gagosian Gallery, London

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