Sir Michael Craig-Martin is an Irish-born contemporary conceptual artist and painter. He is known for fostering and adopting the Young British Artists, many of whom he taught, and for his conceptual artwork, An Oak Tree. He is an emeritus Professor of Fine Art at Goldsmiths. His memoir and advice for the aspiring artist, On Being An Artist, was published by London-based publisher Art / Books in April 2015.
An Oak Tree by Michael Craig-Martin
Michael Craig-Martin (left), and Keith Milow at the "varnishing day" R.A. Summer Exhibition 2015
A mural by Craig-Martin
Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work are prioritized equally to or more than traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions. This method was fundamental to American artist Sol LeWitt's definition of conceptual art, one of the first to appear in print:In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.
Detail, Memorial for the Victims of Nazi Military Justice by monumental sculptor Olaf Nicolai, Ballhausplatz, Vienna
Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917. Photograph by Alfred Stieglitz
Art & Language, Art-Language Vol. 3 Nr. 1, 1974
Lawrence Weiner. Bits & Pieces Put Together to Present a Semblance of a Whole, The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 2005.