Michael Craig-Martin
Michael Craig-Martin is one of the daddies of contemporary conceptual art. He was a senior tutor at Goldsmiths in the '80s and his influence upon the YBAs is practically unsurpassed. It was Craig-Martin who filtered Duchamp through to the next generation, but don't blame him if Vyner Street gets you down: it ain't all his fault.
Craig-Martin's most famous work is probably 1973's Oak Tree, a glass of water on a shelf, with an accompanying text in which 'the artist' argues that the glass of water is not a glass of water, but in fact an oak tree. It's pretty funny: read it in full here. Apparently the work was barred from entering the US because it was categorised by Customs officials as vegetation. Which is also pretty funny.
Recently Craig-Martin has taken to doing brightly coloured paintings and prints that overlay big letters with random objects, like buckets and umbrellas. These are less funny than his early stuff, but they still look cool.
Craig-Martin's most famous work is probably 1973's Oak Tree, a glass of water on a shelf, with an accompanying text in which 'the artist' argues that the glass of water is not a glass of water, but in fact an oak tree. It's pretty funny: read it in full here. Apparently the work was barred from entering the US because it was categorised by Customs officials as vegetation. Which is also pretty funny.
Recently Craig-Martin has taken to doing brightly coloured paintings and prints that overlay big letters with random objects, like buckets and umbrellas. These are less funny than his early stuff, but they still look cool.
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