Michael Craig-Martin: Arp Craig-Martin Arp

In appropriating 11 sculptures, 11 reliefs, and 11 objects by Hans Arp, Michael Craig-Martin presents everyday objects--a mobile, a shoes, a pair of scissors--that he has drawn on black-and-white wall surfaces. These mural drawings, which belong to the artist's new work group that he realized at the Rolandseck railway station near Bonn, Germany, show stylized objects that have been linked to each other by a repeated pattern that expands to an allover network. Into these object drawings, Craig-Martin has integrated paintings of his objects, positioned on the same motif. This interplay between appropriation and originality--often practiced by the artist--is already apparent in his treatment of originals by his colleagues, for example, Jasper John's beer cans or Magritte's pipe. The exhibition, documented here by numerous illustrations, brings this appropriation process to our attention once more. The fact that Arp's sculptures and reliefs lead to Craig-Martin's works invites the viewer to reflect on the original versus its interpretation.