'People used to say I looked like Steve Martin. I met him once - he didn't see it'
Saturday, July 11, 2009
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PDF Michael Craig-Martin, artist
What got you started?
Discovering modern art through a schoolteacher when I was about 12. It was the 1950s, and modern art was still a secret - I thought I'd stumbled upon a magic world.
What was your big breakthrough?
Getting into Yale art school. I happened to be there at the school's golden moment, when it had some fantastically good students - Richard Serra, Brice Marden, Chuck Close.
Who or what have you sacrificed for your art?
Personal life. You can't be an artist without having an unusually irritating level of self-absorption.
Why do some people have such difficulties with conceptual art?
In order to feel really comfortable with art, you have to gain familiarity with it. People might go to Tate Modern and be sceptical in the first room or two, but by the third room they've found something that captures their imagination. And by the fourth room, they've found four things.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Just keeping going. You have to learn to persist in the times when things are not going well, in the hope that some day they will.
How does Britain's art scene compare with America's?
Britain's art world is amazingly active, considering its size. It sits in a very odd position between Europe and America, and negotiates a strange path of its own.
Complete this sentence: At heart I'm just a frustrated ...
Layabout. I'm essentially a very lazy person.
Which other living artist do you most admire?
Too many to say. Of my own generation, Bruce Nauman, Gerhard Richter, Richard Serra.
In the movie of your life, who plays you?
People used to say I looked like Steve Martin. But I met him once, and I don't think he saw any similarity.
What work of art would you most like to own?
Seurat's Bathers at Asni?res, for its wonderful combination of modesty and grandeur.
What's the worst thing anyone's ever said about your work?
One review of an early show called it a "waste of a beautiful gallery".
Is there anything about your career you regret?
No. Certainly not the years I spent teaching. Many of my students - Damien Hirst, Gary Hume - have gone on to do well. That's a very nice reward.
In short
Born: Dublin, 1941
Career: Exhibited conceptual work An Oak Tree in 1974. Taught at Goldsmiths. Currently co-curating the exhibition This Is Sculpture at Tate Liverpool (0151-702 7400).
High point: "My 2006 show Signs of Life at the Kunsthaus Bregenz in Austria. Everything just seemed to work."
Low point: "Feeling, at about 40, that I hadn't come close to achieving what I'd hoped to."
guardian.co.uk ? Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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