Behind the Art
Michael Craig-Martin: Ordinariness
Join Michael Craig-Martin at his London studio as he speaks about his working methods, his interest in the ordinary, and his abiding concern for the sculptural.
Extended through August 23, 2019
I have always thought everything important is right in front of you.
—Michael Craig-Martin
Gagosian is pleased to present new works by Michael Craig-Martin. This is the first time his sculptures have been shown indoors, and the first time they have been exhibited as a group in London.
Among the leading generation of British Conceptual artists, Craig-Martin probes the relationship between objects and images, perception and reality, harnessing the unique human capacity to conjure ideas through symbols and signs.
Since his time at Yale University in the 1960s—where he studied alongside artists such as Chuck Close, Brice Marden, and Richard Serra—Craig-Martin has been building on a specific vocabulary of imagery based on common, everyday items. His early work used real objects to explore the nature of art and representation, illusion and belief. In the late 1970s he turned to making images of objects, beginning with simple and precise line drawings that have remained the foundation of his work. In the ’90s, he began a series of large, site-specific painted installations that explored the physical and imaginary relationships between viewer, object, and space. Subsequently, he turned to painting, developing his hallmark style of bold black outlines surrounded by flat planes of bright, vivid colors.
Join Michael Craig-Martin at his London studio as he speaks about his working methods, his interest in the ordinary, and his abiding concern for the sculptural.
Michael Craig-Martin and Jan Dalley sat down together in London as part of this year’s FT Weekend Festival. Join the two for a conversation about the artist’s long career in art, teaching, and writing, as well as his latest projects. A principal figure of British Conceptual art, Craig-Martin probes the relationship between objects and images, harnessing the human capacity to imagine absent forms through symbols and pictures.
Michael Craig-Martin and Jeffrey Sturges in conversation on Tom Wessselmann’s Standing Still Lifes.