Michael Craig-Martin (B. 1941) studied at Yale University School of Art and Architecture in the early 1960s, but has spent most of his working life in Great Britain. A pioneer in the world of conceptual art, his colourful paintings and murals can be seen in such museums as MoMA in New York and the Pompidou in Paris. In 1995 he curated Drawing the Line, an exhibition of drawings from pre-history to the present day held at the Whitechapel Art Gallery (and touring).
Craig-Martin continued working in various forms, always maintaining an elegant restraint and conceptual clarity. During the 1990s the focus of his work shifted decisively to painting, with the same range of boldly outlined motifs and luridly vivid colour schemes in unexpected (and at times apparently arbitrary) combinations applied both to works on canvas.