Rachael Thomas Interviews Michael Craig Martin

This book-length conversation, interspersed with images, explores Michael Craig-Martin's fascination with fundamental questions regarding the nature of art, representation, authorship and the role of the viewer. Craig-Martin, born in Dublin and educated at Yale, was a key figure in the first generation of British Conceptual artists. He became known for bright, flat paintings not unlike Roy Lichtenstein's, which are in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Tate Modern, among other institutions. He also eventually began to teach at Goldsmiths College, where he helped to mold the minds of Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst, among other future Young British Artists. In discussing his style of detached Conceptualism, he reveals, among other things, his connections to Minimalism and the influence John Cage and Josef Albers on both his practice and his teaching.