"vegetation". Craig-Martin was forced to inform them that it was really a glass of water. He said, "It was of course a wonderfully funny incident, particularly because it extended into 'real life' the discussion about belief and doubt, and fact and fiction I was addressing in the work." An artist's copy was shown by Gagosian Gallery at Frieze Masters 2021 art fair in London. “An Oak Tree” was first shown in Asia in May 2022 at the Hangaram Art Museum in southern Seoul, in Craig-Martin's solo retrospective “Here and Now.” Critical reaction An Oak Tree is a celebrated artwork, which the Irish Museum of Modern Art says is now recognised as a turning point in the development of conceptual art, although initially it was met with surprise, if not scorn. It has been described as "questioning the nature of reality." The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states that "to fail to consider it a great work of art because it fails to give rise to a distinctively aesthetic kind of pleasure does not actually undermine the project at all. Conceptual art, as we now know, is about conveying meaning through a vehicular medium, and not to provide its audience with experiences of, say, beauty. Any attack on this fundamental feature of conceptual art targets not so much an individual work of art but rather finds fault with the artistic tradition itself." In his Richard Dimbleby Lecture on 23 November 2000, Sir Nicholas Serota said, "We may not 'like' Craig-Martin's work, but it certainly reminds us that the appreciation of all art involves an act of faith comparable to the belief that, through transubstantiation, the bread and wine of Holy Communion become the body and blood of Christ." Damien Hirst said, "That piece is, I think, the greatest piece of conceptual sculpture, I still can't get it out of my head." Richard Cork called its original display in 1974 "one of the most challenging moments" of contemporary art. Anthony Caro said, "Some of the stuff that's called art is just damned stupid. I mean, 'That glass of water's an oak tree' kind of thing." Art critic David Lee and the founders of the Stuckism art movement, Billy Childish and Charles Thomson also oppose it. In response to Nigel Gosling's praise of the work, Giles Auty said, "How would the self-same critic react if, on ordering oak planks for an outhouse, he were