Michael Craig-Martin review – sorry, but these lamps and filing cabinets just aren’t that interesting

Jonathan Jones | The Guardian | 17th September 2024

The tradition of “object-art“ goes back at least to Magritte and his pipe that was “not a pipe”. Craig-Martin started there in 1973 with a glass of water that, he said, represented an oak tree. For decades, though, he has produced cheerfully coloured line drawings of everyday objects. “Perfectly pretty, and perfectly vacant” says one critic. The writer agrees. “If things are just things, how interesting can they be? It’s more like the dry irony of someone who’s forgotten what he’s being ironic about”.