Michael Craig-Martin

21 Sep-10 Dec 2024

Overview

In September 2024, the Royal Academy of Arts will present the largest retrospective of Michael Craig-Martin RA’s work ever to be held in the UK. A key figure in British art, Craig-Martin (b.1941) is one of the most influential artists and teachers of his generation. Curated in close collaboration with the artist, this ambitious exhibition will encompass the broad repertoire of Craig-Martin’s sixty-year career. Presented across the Royal Academy’s Main Galleries, it will bring together over 120 important works spanning from the 1960s through to the present day, including sculpture, installation, painting and drawing, as well as newly conceived works for the occasion.

Craig-Martin was born in Ireland and studied in America before moving to London in 1966, where he has lived ever since. Fusing elements of pop, minimalism and conceptual art, his work transforms recognisable objects – from household items to mobile devices, famous art works to modernist buildings – with bold colours and simple uninflected lines. Combined they take on the resonance of history paintings, portraits or still-lifes, a reflection of contemporary life shaped in the image of the objects that define it. His influence extends beyond his own work; as an art educator he has inspired generations of artists, in particular many of the Young British Artists (YBAs), who made a significant impact on the art scene in the 1990s, including Damien Hirst, Gary Hume RA, Sarah Lucas and Fiona Rae RA.

Artists