Using seemingly mundane themes, Craig-Martin’s Art & Design is an ode to modern and post-modern art histories. Through an instantly recognizable visual language, he references a series of iconic works. The artist includes the outline of Jeff Koons’ iconic 1986 sculpture, Rabbit. Similarly, the pipe is a reference to Rene Magritte’s 1929 painting Ceci n’est pas une pipe (The Treachery of Images), and its own interrogation of objective materiality. Other important artworks included are Marcel Duchamp’s world renowned sculpture, Bottle Rack, Man Ray’s readymade iron, Gift, which is an instantly recognizable Dada classic, and a soup can – an obvious nod to Andy Warhol’s iconic series.
Concerning himself primarily with the idiosyncrasies of prescribed value, Michael Craig-Martin suggests that ‘we often look for the special in special objects or special events, but actually, if we understood the quality of ordinary things, we are closer to the substance of life.’ In a series of twelve screenprinted images, Objects of our Time, another work by the artist, exemplifies this contention, using the individual item as an archetypal referent for modernity. Like art, material objects derive meaning from our own understanding. Requiring human intervention, Craig-Martin’s works reveal the power of context and ground his entire oeuvre within modern and post-modern histories.
On a fundamental level, both series convey the tension between a commodity’s use and its value, exploring how this discrepancy pervades art as much as life.