Thursday, 30 April 2015

Michael Craig-Martin - Advice for an aspiring artist

An extract from the artist Michael Craig-Martin's new book on how to get on in the art world. He is known as a key influence on the Young British Artists Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst, Gary Hume and Sarah Lucas who he taught at Goldsmiths College in the late 80s.

"By far the most important characteristic for anyone wanting to be an artist is desire: the passionate, inexplicable desire to make art. This desire is more important than talent. To have enviable talent but qualified desire is not enough; to have little obvious talent but overwhelming desire may lead to success. Desire can be encouraged but not taught. In my experience, a driven person lacking any recognizable talent may, out of necessity, invent a way to work at which they excel. This is what we call originality."

More of the excerpt on the RA site

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