The Royal Academy of Arts is presenting the most comprehensive retrospective of Michael Craig-Martin RA seen in the UK to date. Recognised internationally as one of his era’s most influential artists and educators, Craig-Martin (b. 1941) has been a fixture in British art for nearly six decades. The exhibition is curated in close collaboration with the artist; this ambitious exhibition brings together over 120 key works spanning his prolific career. This is a happy exhibition full of bright, clean colours and a well-composed design.
The show spread across the Main Galleries, reveals Craig-Martin’s evolution as an artist, from the experimental early works of the 1960s to newly conceived pieces created especially for this show. Viewers will see works in several mediums, including sculpture, installation, painting, and drawing.
Craig-Martin was born in Ireland, educated in the United States, and has lived and worked in London since 1966. His work combines aspects of Pop, Minimalism, and Conceptual Art to represent everyday household objects, famous paintings, and modernist buildings as vivid, colourful ensembles. Using characteristic simplicity and radiant colour, his line and hue soar the ordinary object as an icon of contemporary life.
In parallel, Craig-Martin has also been a transformative educator throughout his work, teaching many of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who rose to prominence in the 1990s, including Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, and Fiona Rae RA. His influence sometimes exceeds his work, being honest and pervasive in the British art scene, making him a key figure in modern art.
The works are displayed chronologically to follow Craig-Martin’s artistic trajectory; earlier works like On the Table (1970) and An Oak Tree (1973) disclose his early conceptual approach. These works examine the notions of belief and perception and the dynamic relationship between the artist and viewer. The seminal work, An Oak Tree, represents a milestone in Craig-Martin’s career and a turn from pure conceptualism.
A part of the retrospective will be with the wall drawings, which Craig-Martin executes on a large scale using tape and projections. Works such as Interlocked (1990) will be reproduced on the gallery walls to highlight the ordinary items usually overlooked by the viewer but known to be at the core of modern life. In this way, Craig-Martin developed a visual thesaurus of motifs through repetition and reinterpretation in different contexts- from wall drawings to colourful paintings over time.
By the 1990s, he had moved on to bright, monumentally scaled paintings of single objects, from mobile phones to iPads and other emblems of contemporary identity. These paintings—now probably his most iconic works—will dominate the exhibition, alongside text-based pieces exploring the interrelationship between words and images.
One of the highlights of this exhibition is a gallery dedicated to Craig-Martin’s reimagination of iconic works from art and design, including Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain and Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Chair. The new works that conclude the show include a large-scale digital installation and immersive site-specific experience in the Central Hall, a space transformed by vivid colour and dynamic imagery.
Craig-Martin’s monumental sculptures of everyday objects are displayed outside the Royal Academy in the Annenberg Courtyard, spilling beyond the gallery walls.
Following the Royal Academy’s tradition of paying homage to its Royal Academicians, this retrospective marked its ongoing commitment to displaying work from outstanding contemporary artists. Elected a Royal Academician in 2006 and Senior Academician in 2015, Craig-Martin follows in the footsteps of Marina Abramović, Antony Gormley, Ai Weiwei, and Anish Kapoor.
Along with the exhibition, the Royal Academy will also organise events related to Craig-Martin’s teaching career and the broader significance of art education in the UK. This will be an opportunity that will seldom appear to reflect on educators’ contributions to the future of art.