Michael Craig-Martin makes Seurat old and flat.
Michael Craig-Martin was born in Ireland, but attended University at Yale, from which he graduated in 1966, so he had ample opportunity to soak himself in American Pop Art, which informs much of his work. He then moved to the UK to live, and will therefore have been influenced by the conceptual work of various Turner Prize nominees. Both influences are very apparent in his work.
He started off exhibiting every day objects which he transformed either by cutting into geometric shapes (Black Book 1967) or by arranging in varying geometric patterns (eg Four Complete Shelf Sets...Extended to Five Incomplete Sets, 1971.) Some of these worked - Black Book initially looks both pretty and dangerous, like a voracious carnivorous plant. Others less so - Four Shelf Sets…is a little mundane.
One of his more visually striking works from that era was On The Shelf, 1970, in which 15 milk bottles were aligned on a downward sloping shelf. The amount of water in each bottle increases from left to right so that the fluid line is perfectly straight. It’s simple but it works.
Less successful are his repeated box drawings which depict boxes with various sides removed or opened. The geometry is accurate, but if you’re looking for mathematical fandango, with planes at angles to each other and geometrical precision that has been designed to defy reality, please go to Maurits Cornelis Escher, a veritable genius of geometric design and repeating patterns.
Some works here are plain lame - Studies from an Oak Tree, 1974, simply shows the same tiny drawing of a glass of water repeated dozens of times. Attempts to be intriguing simply by pretending one object is another are a little feeble.
The main feature in this room is an array of buckets and pulleys. But without any sort of back-story or rationale - like the fantastic Cornelia Parker - I just shrugged in bewilderment.
