Michael Craig Martin on ‘Past Present’
In advance of Michael Craig-Martin’s solo exhibition opening this week at Cristea Roberts Gallery, we reflect on producing works for ‘Past Present’ with the artist.
Installation view of Michael Craig-Martin: Past Present at Cristea Roberts Gallery, London, 2022. Photo: Sam Roberts Photography.
“I couldn’t believe the quality you could get. They are beautifully printed, and the quality of the pigmentation is fantastic.”
Michael Craig-Martin: An Anthology debuts this Friday at Cristea Roberts Gallery. Dedicated to almost thirty years of editions, the exhibition of over fifty works includes Craig-Martin’s reinterpretations of Old Master paintings, which we had the pleasure of printing for his solo exhibition, ‘Past Present’, at the gallery in 2022.
The prints pay homage to some of the most iconic works in Western art history, including one of the artist’s favourites - Georges Seurat’s ‘Bathers at Asnières’, 1884, of which he produced three variants for the exhibition.
In conversation with Nicholas Cullinan, Craig-Martin spoke of the merits of producing the artworks as giclées, which are also known as archival pigment prints. By extending his digital drawing process to the outputting of the work as pigment prints, we could play and experiment with the colour of each artwork before he selected which prints to exhibit.
I’ve done so many prints, but I have never used the same image and made it different colours. For any one of these prints, only three are displayed, but I produced forty, so there are thirty-six I didn’t use.
Drawing on the computer is fantastic because you can eliminate and make adjustments so easily and keep everything. So I can work for a month, leave it for a month, and then go back and suddenly realise that the first one I did was the best.
There are limitations to digital printmaking, of course, but the advantage is that the printmaker could produce tests, and I could say “Mm, could the face be a bit bluer?”, and he’d make one with a bluer face. And I’d say “That’s the one, that’s it.”
I couldn’t believe the quality you could get. They are beautifully printed, and the quality of the pigmentation is fantastic.
Michael Craig-Martin
Producing pigment prints affords the artist greater degrees of flexibility for adjustments than traditional print mediums without compromising on print colour or quality. Our large-format fine art printers can produce works up to 110cm with archival quality and excellent colour accuracy. To read more about our giclée printing services, click here.
The exhibition coincides with Michael Craig‑Martin: 1967 to 2024 at the Royal Academy of Arts, which is now entering its second month and marks the publication of the first catalouge raisonné featuring Craig-Martin’s entire work in prints and multiples.
See Michael Craig-Martin: An Anthology, Prints and Multiples 1996 – 2024 from 25 October - 23 November 2024 at Cristea Roberts Gallery, London.Installation view of Michael Craig-Martin: Past Present at Cristea Roberts Gallery, London, 2022. Photo: Sam Roberts Photography.Michael Craig-Martin in Conversation with Nicholas Cullinan, 2022. Courtesy artist and Cristea Roberts Gallery. Quotations have been lightly edited for concision and readability.