Michael Craig-Martin

Corkscrew (orange), 2019

Long Lake Estates

Michael Craig-Martin is an Irish conceptual artist who was born in 1941.  He spent most of his childhood in Washington DC, and currently lives and works in London.  

In 1973, he exhibited the seminal piece An Oak Tree.  The work consists of a glass of water standing on a shelf attached to the gallery wall next to which is a text using an argument to explain why it is in fact an oak tree.   He sees belief of both artist and viewer as having a key place in art, and that in An Oak Tree he had "deconstructed the work of art in such a way as to reveal its single basic and essential element", namely this belief.  Nevertheless, on one occasion when it was barred by Australian Customs officials from entering the country as vegetation, he was forced to explain it was really a glass of water.    

Since 2011, Craig-Martin has been working on powder-coated steel forms that describe everyday objects and appear like line drawings in the air.  The first series was shown in the gardens of Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, in 2014, where the sculptures were sunk into the soil of the grounds.

Articles:

Michael Craig-Martin up close and impersonal

A video featuring the corkscrew and other sculptures in this series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz_tEn98UjU