Martin Creed

Martin Creed was born in 1968 in Wakefield, situated in West Yorkshire. During his childhood he lived in Glasgow .

When he was around 20 he went to the Slade School of Fine Art in London, where he lived until 2001. The main interest of the school is the practice, history and theories of contemporary art.

In 1993 his Work No. 81 was installed in the offices of a London firm, Starkmann Ltd. From then onwards Creed had many solo exhibitions or projects in Europe and North America. Words and music influenced him for a great part.

In the same year he received the Turner Prize at Tate Britain, the home of British Art. The Turner Prize is an award for contemporary art, set up in 1984, in order to promote new developments in contemporary art. It is given to a British artist under the age of 50 for an exhibition or a presentation of their work in the preceding year.

In 1994 Creed formed a band, Owada. He composes rather simple music which shows his intellectual approach. He remains very basic only using few notes and words in order to express powerful messages in his tracks such as ‘Words’, ‘Thinking / Not thinking’ and ‘Fuck off’.

His art could be characterised as subversive wit, minimalist and anti-materialist. His works are always numbered. These numbers are also used as title.

They fit into the avant-gardist style. Moreover he uses mundane and modest materials. However his work is always striking and visually spectacular. He combines art, talking, choreography and music played with his band.

The nature of art itself is the central theme of Creed’s work. Relationships between art and reality, art and life are dominant. Everybody can have his own interpretation of his work of art. Some people tend to say that art is a necessity in the world. Other ones would say that art makes no difference or doesn’t exist.

Moreover Creed seems to want to do what art has always been supposed to do: 'I want to make things. I'm not sure why, but I think it's got something to do with other people. I think I want to try to communicate with other people, because I want to say "hullo", because I want to express myself, and because I want to be loved'.

We can enumerate his striking works : Work No. 88, Work No. 227.

In conclusion we can say: ‘so far, so minimal’. The artist himself confesses ‘to have nothing in particular to say’ and he tries to find the most limited means with which to say it.