Artist Center: Michael Criag-Martin

Michael Craig-Martin takes objects we may see as one thing and brings it into a new perspective, changing the meaning all together. He takes generic objects and reinvents them; most famously know in the art piece An Oak Tree. Martin is an icon of American pop culture and modernism, with his unconventional way of thinking, his use of color and lines in his works, and his of the wall designs.

Martin’s artwork is considered odd, outrageous, and upsetting to some. In his paintings, he uses bright vibrant colors to portray the words or objects that are the subjects in his paintings. The use of line in the projects are very important, the lines are what hold the bright colors in place and help stop the paintings from vibrating for an instant so you could get a look at them and see what they are. What Martin does can be considered a definition of pop art, with the colors, lines, and format, but he does try and create his work to be something more, a major statement. People say Martin’s works are lacking emotion and the humans are depicted as lifeless nothings, but I believe that is where he stumps them. You have to look deeper into work to find the meaning and even sometimes just make up something yourself. His people may be lifeless, but the colors act as the movement and narrative in the painting to give attention to what is important. “In the contemporary world those things have become ordinary things,” Craig-Martin explains. “They are so ubiquitous, so ordinary that you can’t really describe the modern world without those objects” (Taken from an interview from BBC).

The objects that Martin paints or uses in his pieces are a part of everyday life. He is trying to help us think past our normal associations with certain objects and come up with new ideas. Michael Craig-Martin might be an unconventional artist, but his work is teaching people to think outside of the box.

To read the interview/artist statement for the piece An Oak Tree, follow this link:

http://www.mat.upm.es/~jcm/craig-martin--an-oak-tree.html