Michael Craig Martin.

Born Dublin 28th August 1941. His family then moved to Washington DC, where he received a religious education at a Roman Catholic school. Craig Martin gained an interest in art by the illuminated glass panels and stained-glass windows at school and also by the Mark Rothkos Phillips Collection. A few years later, whilst studying in the Lycee Francais, Colombia, he had drawing lessons with an artist named Antonio Roda, who gave him a wider perspective on art. In 1959, Craig Martin attended Fordham University in New York studying English Literature and History. This was also around the time he began to experiment with paint. In 1961, he studied at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere, Paris, and later began a painting course at Yale University. There he was inflyuenced the experimentation and minimalist theories on colour and form of Josef Albers. Craig Martin is known to have said: Everything I know about colour comes from that course. One of his first works is An Oak Tree which consists of a glass of water standing on a shelf attached to the gallery wall. In the 1980s Craig Martin headed the department of art at Goldsmiths College, where he had a significant influence on the emerging YBA generation, including Damien Hirst. He was also helpful in promoting the Freeze show to established art-world figures. STYLE Craig-Martin's style of detached conceptualism, minimal construction by the artist and the use of readymade techniques inspired by Marcel Duchamp had a marked impression on his students, as did an educational structure based on multi-media, removing traditional painting, sculpture and film media. Craig-Martin's later works have used a stylised drawing technique often depicting everyday household objects and sometimes incorporating art references, such as objects known from their use in Dada artworks. His work can be compared to that of his earlier contemporary Patrick Caulfield and latterly with that of Julian Opie. There is no differentiation in treatment, which consists of black line drawings with lines of equal mechanical width and brightly coloured images, which have been compared to "nursery" colours. The work can be done on canvas with (acrylic) paint or with other methods, such as using black tape to make the lines. In theIntelligence show at Tate Britain he completed an entire room in this fashion.