“When I was invited to go to Wuhan, I didn't know anything about it, so I looked up the Wikipedia about Wuhan. I discovered that part of Wuhan used to be Hankou, and then I realised that my great grandmother came from Hankou. My grandmother and father were both born in Hankou. Of all the places in China, it is the most amazing place to have asked for my exhibition. I needed to go back where my family comes from!” KnowsUsedFatherBornNeededMy FamilyChinaUsed To BeGrandmotherMy GrandmotherInvitedRealisedMother And FatherMost AmazingExhibitionsWikipediaGreat GrandmotherAmazing Places Author:Michael Craig-Martin
“For many years I hoped to have an exhibition in China, because of my family connection.” YearsMy FamilyConnectionsChinaExhibitionsFamily Connections Author:Michael Craig-Martin
“I wanted to make new works of very contemporary objects, which I thought was interesting because many of them are manufactured in China, but these objects are universal, they go across all languages, all cultures.” WantedCultureLanguageInterestingObjectsUniversalChinaContemporaryNew Work Author:Michael Craig-Martin
“There was something really wonderful about being able to feel confident about doing my first exhibition in China, that people would have no trouble recognising the images and understanding my work. I also have a lot of freedom in the way I use colour, and I think that kind of freedom in colour is also understandable in every culture.” PeopleThinkingWayFeelsFirstsKindUseAbleCultureUnderstandingWonderfulTroubleChinaColourExhibitions Author:Michael Craig-Martin
“I think that the exchange is very important. Before I did the exhibition in Shanghai, I was a judge for the John Moores Painting Prize and that was very interesting for me, because some of the judges are Chinese and some are British, and we look at the work together. It was fascinating that most of the time we were in complete agreement, but some of the time we were not. People send their works from all over China. For a foreigner, this gave me a very good picture about what is happening in China and its art today.” PeopleThinkingLooksArtImportantTodayTogetherInterestingPaintingJudgingHappeningsVery GoodChinaBritishChineseFascinatingAgreementWorking TogetherPrizeVery InterestingForeignersExhibitionsShanghai Author:Michael Craig-Martin
“When I was in Wuhan, I went to the art school, which was one of the most important art schools in China, an enormous art school. One of the things that I saw is that the schools are very big and there are so many students. It is very difficult to me to teach creative activity to great numbers of people, because I think you need personal contact with students, you need to speak individually, you need individual contact between teachers and students, you need continuity. To me this is a problem in mass education in every society now.” PeopleThinkingNeedsArtImportantProblemBigsSchoolIndividualSpeakDifficultNumbersTeachCreativeSawsTeacherStudentsActivityMassChinaEnormousContactContinuityArt SchoolTeacher And Student Author:Michael Craig-Martin
“There is no doubt when one comes from the West to China one understands pop art as having originally developed as part of Western tradition. There is a historical development, in which things find resonance in different places.” ArtDifferentDoubtDevelopmentTraditionHistoricalWestWesternChinaPopsNo DoubtDifferent PlaceResonancePop Art Author:Michael Craig-Martin
“When I go to China I see many artists whose work reflects on aspects of contemporary popular culture but obviously the history of Western art is not part of their own tradition.” ArtArtistCultureArt IsAspectTraditionWesternChinaContemporaryPopular Culture Author:Michael Craig-Martin
