The 'obsessive drawing' behind the conceptual art

Dublin-born artist Michael Craig-Martin, most famous for his 'An Oak Tree' installation, talks about the precision drawings which form the basis of his paintings and conceptual work

Those who claim conceptual artists don't know how to draw should visit an exhibition of 60 drawings by artist and YBA guru Michael Craig-Martin which opened today at London’s Alan Cristea Gallery.

Painstaking studies for the Dublin-born artist’s most famous works, including his 1974 piece ‘An Oak Tree’, which consists of a glass of water on a shelf, reveal the precision planning Craig-Martin undertakes for his installations and paintings.

“I have always spent my time drawing [..], that’s really how I spend my days,” the artist said in a video interview.

“But ironically they have never been shown. No gallery I had was ever particularly interested in them so I didn’t show them to anybody really I just did them.”

Staged to coincide with Craig-Martin’s 70th birthday, this is the first ever exhibition wholly dedicated to his pen and ink artwork.

The clean lines and perfect form of the drawings appear computer generated, but the majority of the works predate home usage of computer programmes and PCs and have been produced freehand using black masking tape.

The artist was born in 1941 and educated in the United States, returning to Europe in the mid-1960s to become a key figure in the first generation of British conceptual artists in his capacity as tutor at Goldsmith’s College in the Seventies, Eighties and late Nineties.

The exhibition includes drawings of objects from his signature artistic vocabulary, including sandals, pianos, tables, chairs, books and globes.

“For every stage of my work, going right back to the beginning, there is a set of drawings that relates to what I was trying to do,” he Craig-Martin said.

“I look at them now and I think ‘There are hundreds these’ and I realise what an obsessive person I am.”

Watch the full video interview with Michael Craig-Martin above

‘Michael Craig-Martin Drawings: 1967-2002’ is at Alan Cristea Gallery, Cork Street until 4 June, www.alancristea.com