Sir Michael Craig-Martin is one of the most influential artists of his generation – but he says he’s had “terrible things” said about the work he’s now famous for.

The 83-year-old’s long career is now the subject of a major retrospective opening this weekend at the Royal Academy.

But he told Sky News: “I’ve had terrible things said about all the work that now people think is wonderful… If you can’t survive criticism… you’re in the wrong game.”

The Royal Academy retrospective brings together his life’s work in one show, including his early experimental sculpture, his landmark conceptual work and a new immersive digital work.

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While much of Sir Michael’s painting has been dominated with depictions of modern icons, like laptops and iPhones, he says technology has made it “harder for people to look” at his work.

“We’ve become probably the most visual age there’s ever been and at the same time it’s become harder and harder for people to actually look,” he said.

“[Paintings] don’t move – you have to come to them, you have to give them a little time,” he explained, adding that nowadays people are more “used to something that’s doing something for them”.

The subject matter of much of Craig-Martin’s large-scale, vivid colour paintings of everyday objects – from trainers to paperclips, glasses to coffee cups – is universally understood and easily accessible.

“What’s ordinary is what unites everybody,” he explains.

“When you buy a coffee, they give you the cup. You don’t buy the cup, it’s free with the coffee, and yet to make a painting out of it is to give it a certain kind of presence, a certain kind of dignity, a way of looking at it that may be different, to what its value or use is.”

Now in his 80s, Sir Michael’s work has become sought-after around the world. Not only has he proven to be one of the most successful artists of his generation, he’s also been one of the most influential teachers.

In the late 80s, his students at Goldsmiths would go on to be the headline-making Young British Artists, or YBAs as they became known – and they include Damien Hirst and Sarah Lucas.

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“They were very, very young,” Sir Michael explained. “There were people who said to me that it was very dangerous for them to be having this kind of success because they were so young and my advice to them at the time was ‘if the door opens, it’s best to go through it’.”

Decades before, in 1974, he’d made headlines of his own with a piece called An Oak Tree – now widely considered a landmark moment in the history of conceptual art.

Recreated for the retrospective, provocatively you won’t find any big logs propped up in a gallery as the piece is just a glass of water on a glass shelf.

“People often do say to me… it changed my idea about what I thought art was, what it could be, my relationship, and that’s an amazing thing to be able to say.”

Challenging us all to look with fresh eyes at the ‘ordinary’ all around us, Michael Craig-Martin’s body of work is proof of why he is one of the most extraordinary artists working today.

Michael Craig-Martin is at the Royal Academy in London from 21 September to 10 December.

David Graham, whose voice featured in some of the UK’s favourite TV shows, including Thunderbirds and Peppa Pig, has died.

The London-born star was 99.

Jamie Anderson, the son of Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson, led the tributes on X as he called Graham a “legendary” actor.

Graham brought to life the Thunderbirds puppet characters Gordon Tracy, scientist Brains, and Lady Penelope’s driver, Aloysius “Nosey” Parker, in the series about the secret International Rescue organisation.

“We will miss you dearly, David. Our thoughts are with David’s friends and family,” Anderson’s post on X confirming the death on Friday said.

Anderson went on to pay tribute to Graham, who also voiced the evil Daleks in Doctor Who, saying: “David was always a wonderful friend to us here at Anderson Entertainment.”

‘What a talent’

Anderson also told the PA news agency: “Just a few weeks ago, I was with 2,000 Anderson fans at a Gerry Anderson concert in Birmingham where we sang him happy birthday – such a joyous occasion.

“And now, just a few weeks later, he’s left us. David was always kind and generous with his time and his talent. And what a talent.”

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Highlighting all the characters played by Graham, Anderson added: “He will be sorely missed.”

Graham returned as Parker for ITV’s remake Thunderbirds Are Go, which ran between 2015 and 2020, but not for the live-action 2004 film which saw Ron Cook take on the role.

The original 1965 Thunderbirds was created by Gerry Anderson, who died in 2012, and his second wife, Sylvia, the voice of Lady Penelope, who died in 2016.

Graham also played Grandpa Pig in children’s show Peppa Pig, and provided the voice for characters in Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom.

His in-person acting roles included Doctor Who, Coronation Street and Casualty.

“Trailblazing” actress Cleo Sylvestre who starred in films, soap operas and stage plays has died aged 79, her agent has said.

Sylvestre, also known as Cleopatra Palmer, appeared in productions as diverse as Crossroads, Shakespeare’s As You Like It and the first Paddington movie.

A spokesperson for Fulcrum Talent said: “It is with deep regret that I have to announce the sad news that Cleo Sylvestre MBE died this morning.

“Much loved and admired by her peers, she will be remembered as a trailblazer and a true friend. She will be sorely missed by so many.”

Sylvestre was also a singer and recorded with The Rolling Stones, who backed her on a 1964 cover of To Know Him Is To Love Him. She later worked as a musician with her blues band Honey B Mama And Friends.

Born in Hertfordshire in April 1945, she was brought up in London by her mother Laureen Sylvestre and studied at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts.

She was made an MBE in 2023 for services to drama and charity and was married to Ian Palmer until his death in 1995.

Sylvestre enjoyed roles in some of TV’s best-known shows, including playing Melanie Harper, the adopted daughter of Meg Richardson in ITV’s long-running Crossroads, during the 1970s.

Other TV roles came in The Bill, New Tricks, Till Death Do Us Part, Grange Hill, Doctor Who and Coronation Street.

Her more recent parts included ITV thriller Platform 7, and Channel 5’s revamp of All Creatures Great And Small.

Sylvestre began her acting career on the stage and was the first black actress to take a leading role in a National Theatre production – in National Health in 1969.

She made her Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) debut playing Audrey in a 2023 production of As You Like It.

Her film roles have ranged from the 2014 film Paddington, Kidulthood from 2006 and 1993’s The Punk.

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US-born playwright and author Bonnie Greer wrote on X that Sylvestre was “one of the reasons that-from my vantage point in NYC (New York City) that I thought that this country has the best anglophone theatre, and the best place to be a Black woman in it”.

She added: “I still think that. Thank you, Cleo!”

Dame Elizabeth Anionwu, the UK’s first sickle cell nurse specialist, wrote that she was “devastated” at the death of her “wonderful, kind friend”.