“In my early work I didn't use much colour. I had no confidence about how I could do this.” Quote by Michael Craig-Martin
“I had been doing wall drawings, but they were always black and white. Then in 1993 I painted all the walls of a room to make an installation and as soon as I saw the colour on the walls, it changed my whole life.” WholeBlackWhiteRoomsSawsChangedWallDrawingWhole LifeColourBlack And WhiteInstallation Author:Michael Craig-Martin
“Usually people start with painting and then go on to make installations; my painting came from installation.” PeoplePaintingGoes OnInstallation Author:Michael Craig-Martin
“In the studio, it took me a long time to work out how to make paintings that had the intensity that I was able to create by painting whole rooms. There is a very limited number of colours but there are many variations. I decided to use the purest palette that I could.” LongWholeUseAbleRoomsNumbersPaintingLong TimeDecidedWork OutStudiosColourIntensityVariationPalette Author:Michael Craig-Martin
“When I look at the objects that I draw, it seems to me so obvious about the contemporary world - these are our world.” WorldLooksSeemsObjectsDrawsObviousContemporaryOur World Author:Michael Craig-Martin
“I decided I should use the most obvious colours - the basic colours with simple names: red, purple, yellow, pink. I don't distort the objects, I don't change the objects, I draw them exactly as they are. I do the opposite with the colours.” ShouldUseNamesSimpleObjectsDrawsRedDecidedOppositesObviousColourYellowPurpleDon't Change Author:Michael Craig-Martin
“When I told people that I was going to paint the big room magenta, many people thought that I was crazy.” PeopleBigsRoomsCrazyPaintOld PeopleMagenta Author:Michael Craig-Martin
“The first exhibition that I used bright colours in painting the room was at a gallery in Paris, and there were seven rooms in the gallery. It was very nice gallery, not very big rooms, around the courtyard, it was a very French space. So I painted each room in different colour. When people came to the exhibition, I saw they came with a smile. Everybody smiles - this is something I never saw in my work before.” PeopleFirstsDifferentBigsUsedSpaceRoomsSawsNicePaintingSevenParisColourGalleryVery NiceExhibitionsDifferent Colours Author:Michael Craig-Martin
“The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition is very difficult to hang because it is so large and the quality is very varied. There are 1,200 works, an almost impossible number, some are interesting and some are not.” DifficultInterestingNumbersQualityImpossibleSummerRoyalAcademyExhibitions Author:Michael Craig-Martin
“Usually when I go to the Summer Exhibition, I think every room is too much the same, and I loose my capacity to look at individual works.” ThinkingLooksIndividualRoomsToo MuchSummerCapacityExhibitionsIndividual Work Author:Michael Craig-Martin
“When I was teaching I often said to students that you are trying to be too creative, don't be too creative, because there is so much already in what you are making, you don't need to do very much. You just need to do a little bit, and that is a lot.” NeedsTryingLittlesSaidBitsCreativeTeachingStudentsLittle Bit Author:Michael Craig-Martin