Michael Craig-Martin facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Sir Michael Craig-Martin
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Michael Craig-Martin in 2015
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| Born | 28 August 1941 Dublin, Ireland
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| Education | Yale University |
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Notable work
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An Oak Tree |
| Movement | Conceptualism |
Sir Michael Craig-Martin (born 28 August 1941) is an artist from Ireland who creates modern art and paintings. He is famous for helping and teaching many young British artists. He is also well-known for his special artwork called An Oak Tree. Michael Craig-Martin is a professor at Goldsmiths. In 2015, he wrote a book called On Being An Artist, which shares his life story and advice for new artists.
Contents
Early Life and Art Journey
Michael Craig-Martin was born in Dublin, Ireland. He spent most of his childhood in Washington, D.C., USA. He went to a Catholic primary school for eight years. After that, he attended the English Benedictine Priory School. At this school, students were encouraged to look at religious art in windows.
He became interested in art because of a priest who was an artist. He was also very impressed by paintings from Mark Rothko at the Phillips Collection.
Craig-Martin later studied in Bogotá, Colombia. An artist named Antonio Roda taught him drawing there. This helped him see art in a new way. In 1959, he went to Fordham University in New York. He studied English and History, and also started painting.
In 1961, Craig-Martin studied art in Paris, France. Then, he began a painting course at Yale University. The teaching there was influenced by Josef Albers. Albers taught about colors and shapes. Craig-Martin later said that everything he learned about color came from this course.
Michael Craig-Martin's Artworks
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Michael Craig-Martin has lived and worked in London since 1966. At first, he made art using box-like shapes. Later, he started using everyday items in his art.
In the late 1970s, he began drawing simple outlines of common objects. He built up a large collection of these images. These drawings are still a big part of his art today. In the 1990s, he focused more on painting. He used the same bold outlines and bright colors. He painted on canvases and made large wall paintings.
The Famous An Oak Tree
In 1973, he showed a very important artwork called An Oak Tree. This piece looks like a glass of water on a shelf. Next to it, there is a text that explains why it is actually an oak tree.
Once, customs officials in Australia stopped the artwork. They thought it was a plant! Craig-Martin had to explain that it was really just a glass of water. The National Gallery of Australia bought this artwork in 1977. The Tate gallery also has a copy made by the artist.
Helping Young British Artists
From 1973, Craig-Martin taught at Goldsmiths College. In the 1980s, he greatly influenced a group of artists called the YBAs. One of these artists was Damien Hirst. Craig-Martin also helped promote an art show called Freeze. This show helped many young artists become known.
In 1995, he organized an exhibition called Drawing the Line. This show looked at the history of line drawing. Craig-Martin has also been a trustee for the Tate Gallery. He is also a trustee for the National Art Collections Fund.
Newer Art Creations
Since 2011, Craig-Martin has been making sculptures from steel. These sculptures look like line drawings floating in the air. They show everyday objects. The first series of these sculptures was shown in the gardens of Chatsworth House in 2014. The sculptures were placed directly into the ground.
Art Exhibitions
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Michael Craig-Martin had his first solo exhibition in London in 1969. Since then, he has shown his art often in the UK and other countries. He represented Britain at the São Paulo Art Biennial in 1998. His solo museum shows include "Always Now" in Germany (1998) and "Living" in Portugal (2001). He also had "Signs of Life" in Austria (2006) and "Less Is Still More" in Germany (2013). His art was first shown in America at the Museum of Modern Art.
A big show of Craig-Martin's work was held at the Whitechapel Gallery in London in 1989. In 2006, the Irish Museum of Modern Art showed "Michael Craig-Martin: Works 1964–2006". This exhibition included art from over 40 years of his career. It featured about 50 paintings, sculptures, and wall drawings. One of his works, On the Table (1970), had four metal buckets hanging from a table. This showed how Minimalism and Conceptualism influenced him. His work An Oak Tree (1973) is seen as a key moment in conceptual art.
In 2015, Craig-Martin's exhibition "Transience" was at the Serpentine Galleries. It showed artworks from 1981 to 2015. These included pictures of old technology like laptops and black-and-white TVs. This showed how quickly technology changes. In the same year, Craig-Martin helped organize the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. He invited many artists he knew to show their work. In 2024, a new exhibition of his work opened at the Royal Academy in London.
Art Collections
Michael Craig-Martin's art is in public collections around the world. These include:
- Australian National Gallery, Canberra, Australia
- Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
- Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France
- Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
- Arts Council of Great Britain, United Kingdom
- British Council, United Kingdom
- Government Art Collection, United Kingdom
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom
- Tate, London, United Kingdom
- Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
- Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, USA
- Yale Center for British Art, Connecticut, USA
Personal Life and Honors
Michael Craig-Martin met Jann Hashey at Yale University. They married in 1963 and had a daughter, Jessica Craig-Martin, who is now a photographer.
Craig-Martin has some Chinese heritage. His great-grandmother was from Wuhan, China.
He has received special honors for his work in art. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2001. In 2016, he was made a knight for his services to art.
See also
In Spanish: Michael Craig-Martin para niños
- What Do Artists Do All Day?
