Influential artist Sir Michael Craig-Martin says he’s had ‘terrible things’ said about his work
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.
Pic: Royal Academy of Arts, London/David Parry
“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.”
Sir Michael Craig-Martin says it’s become harder for people to ‘actually look’ at art
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.
Pic: Royal Academy of Arts, London/David Parry
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.
The one where Ross divorces the rock star…?
David Schwimmer says he once served British singer Sir Rod Stewart with divorce papers, while the actor was working in a summer job as a teenager.
The Friends star recalled a brief time as a process server – someone employed to formally serve documents to parties in a legal case – while in his first year of university and how it led to the odd encounter with Sir Rod.
Speaking on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Schwimmer said: “One summer after my freshman year in college, I was just looking for work and my mum said you can be a process server for me.
“My mum was a divorce lawyer, and so I was the guy who would pop out of the bushes and serve you divorce papers.”
The 58-year-old actor, best known for playing ‘three-divorces Ross’ in the long-running sitcom, said he felt like James Bond during the job at age 18.
“Because you get a tip, you’re tipped off as to where they might be,” he said.
“Thank goodness I’ve never run into him since – but I served Rod Stewart.
“I don’t even know if he knows. I don’t think he knows.”
“He knows now,” Colbert joked in reply.
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Schwimmer did not specify which divorce it was for, but the British star split from his first wife Alana Stewart in 1984, when the actor would have been around 18.
Rod Stewart with his wife Alana and their children at Heathrow Airport in 1983. Pic: PA
The veteran rocker married his current wife, Penny Lancaster, in 2007.
Schwimmer, who was born in New York City but grew up partly in Los Angeles, didn’t get his first proper acting role until 1989, according to IMDB, in TV movie A Deadly Silence, and went on to appear in Friends from 1994.
Stars including Beyonce, Eva Longoria and Jamie Lee Curtis have pledged funds to support families affected by the fires in Los Angeles – along with Paris Hilton, who is among those who have lost their homes.
The blazes which erupted in the Pacific Palisades and other areas of the county last week have destroyed thousands of properties and killed at least 24 people.
US reality star and businesswoman Hilton has launched an emergency fund to support families who have been displaced, and kickstarted it with a personal donation of $100,000 dollars (£82,000).
The 43-year-old, who watched her home in Malibu “burn to the ground” as the fires were covered on TV, has also been spending time with animal organisations. She announced on social media that she is fostering a dog whose owners lost their home.
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Paris Hilton posts video of destroyed home
“While I’ve lost my Malibu home, my thoughts are with the countless families who have lost so much more – their homes, cherished keepsakes, the communities they loved, and their sense of stability,” Hilton said in a statement on social media.
Beyonce contributed $2.5m to a newly launched LA Fire Relief Fund, created by her charitable foundation, BeyGOOD.
“The fund is earmarked to aid families in the Altadena/Pasadena area who lost their homes, and to churches and community centres to address the immediate needs of those affected by the wildfires,” the organisation said in a statement.
Pic: AP/Noah Berger
Beyonce’s mother Tina Knowles lost her bungalow in Malibu in the fires.
“It was my favourite place, my sanctuary, my sacred happy place,” she wrote on Instagram. “Now it is gone. God Bless all the brave men and women in our fire department who risked their lives in dangerous conditions.”
Other celebrities who have donated funds include Desperate Housewives star Longoria and her foundation, the Screen Actors Guild, the Recording Academy, which runs the Grammys, and Oscar-winning actress Jamie Lee Curtis and her family – who have all pledged $1m (£819,000) each.
Prince Harry and Meghan are believed to have donated clothing, children’s items and other essential supplies, and were seen making a surprise visit to hand out food to evacuees in Pasadena.
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Actors Mel Gibson, Miles Teller, Jeff Bridges, Billy Crystal, Jamie Chung and Bryan Greenberg are also among the Hollywood stars confirmed to have lost homes, along with talk show host Ricki Lake, and reality stars Spencer and Heidi Pratt.
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Ricki Lake shared on Instagram the moment flames got to her property in Malibu
The fires, which are burning around Los Angeles, come at the start of Hollywood’s awards season.
Organisers of the Oscars have postponed the nominations announcement twice, with the shortlists currently set to be revealed on 23 January, and the event’s annual luncheon ahead of the ceremony has been cancelled.
The show itself is still set to go ahead on 2 March. The Grammys, scheduled for 2 February, is also reportedly still set to go ahead.
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