21 works on paper, ink
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
ARTIST ROOMS
Tate Members
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/martin-creed-2760" aria-label="More by Martin Creed" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Martin Creed</a>
Work 944
ARTIST ROOMS
Presented by the artist jointly to National Galleries of Scotland and Tate and acquired with assistance of the ARTIST ROOMS Fund, supported by the Henry Moore Foundation and Tate Members 2011
abstraction
colour
emotions, concepts and ideas
formal qualities
non-representational
repetition
sequence
<p><span>Work No.944</span> comprises twenty-one individually framed sheets of A4 paper displayed along side each other in a long row. Each sheet of paper has been entirely covered in a single colour using one of a set of twenty-one felt-tipped pens of the sort that children are often given in clear plastic wallets. Creed has said: ‘I find that it’s difficult to choose, to decide that one thing’s more important than the other ... So what I try and do is to choose without having to make decisions.’ (Quoted in Louisa Buck, ‘Martin Creed’, <span>Artforum</span>, vol.38, no.6, February 2000, p.111.) This involves keeping a range of options available, like having the lights turn on then off in his piece <span>Work No.227: The lights going on and off </span>2000 (Tate T13868). In much the same way, by using every felt-tip pen in a set of twenty-one, Creed is saved from having to make a decision about which colour to privilege.</p>
paper unique 21 works ink
24 February 2012 – 27 May 2012
2012-05-27
24 February 2012 – 27 May 2012
2012-05-27
2012-02-24
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2012-02-24
ARTIST ROOMS Martin Creed
Collection based display
8 June 2013 – 6 October 2013
2013-10-06
8 June 2013 – 6 October 2013
2013-10-06
2013-06-08
Ferens Art Gallery (Hull, UK)
http://www.hullcc.gov.uk/museumcollections
2013-06-08
ARTIST ROOMS 2013: Martin Creed
Loan-out
22 January 2014 – 27 April 2014
2014-04-27
22 January 2014 – 27 April 2014
2014-04-27
2014-01-22
Hayward Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.hayward-gallery.org.uk
2014-01-22
Martin Creed
Loan-out
13 June 2014 – 20 September 2014
2014-09-20
13 June 2014 – 20 September 2014
2014-09-20
2014-06-13
Quay Arts (Newport, UK)
2014-06-13
ARTIST ROOMS 2014: Martin Creed
Loan-out
27 January 2017 – 3 June 2017
2017-06-03
27 January 2017 – 3 June 2017
2017-06-03
2017-01-27
Harris Museum, Art Gallery & Library (Preston, UK)
http://www.preston.gov.uk/Category.asp?cat=126
2017-01-27
ARTIST ROOMS 2017: Martin Creed
Loan-out
5 November 2018 – 10 March 2019
2019-03-10
5 November 2018 – 10 March 2019
2019-03-10
2018-11-05
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2018-11-05
ARTIST ROOMS Martin Creed
Collection based display
Work No. 944
displayed: 372 × 6514 × 25 mm
<a href="/search?gid=999999788" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">ARTIST ROOMS</a>
Presented by the artist jointly to National Galleries of Scotland and Tate and acquired with assistance of the <a href="/search?gid=999999788" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">ARTIST ROOMS</a> Fund, supported by the Henry Moore Foundation and <a href="/search?gid=999999973" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Tate Members</a> 2011
<div class="text">
<p>
<i>Work No.944</i> comprises twenty-one individually framed sheets of A4 paper displayed along side each other in a long row. Each sheet of paper has been entirely covered in a single colour using one of a set of twenty-one felt-tipped pens of the sort that children are often given in clear plastic wallets. Creed has said: ‘I find that it’s difficult to choose, to decide that one thing’s more important than the other ... So what I try and do is to choose without having to make decisions.’ (Quoted in Louisa Buck, ‘Martin Creed’, <i>Artforum</i>, vol.38, no.6, February 2000, p.111.) This involves keeping a range of options available, like having the lights turn on then off in his piece <i>Work No.227: The lights going on and off </i>2000 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/creed-work-no-227-the-lights-going-on-and-off-t13868" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T13868</span></a>). In much the same way, by using every felt-tip pen in a set of twenty-one, Creed is saved from having to make a decision about which colour to privilege.</p>
<p>By identifying his works primarily through a numbering system, Creed accords them equal status, regardless of size or material. His idiosyncratic approach is born out of this refusal to create hierarchies and out of a playful concern with the conundrum of wanting both to make something and nothing: ‘the problem was to attempt to establish, amongst other things, what material something could be, what shape something could be, what size something could be, how something could be constructed, how something could be situated … how many of something there could be, or should be, if any, if at all.’ (Quoted in Virginia Button, <i>The Turner Prize: Twenty Years</i>, London 2003, p.172.) His interrogation of his own motives reveals an anxiety about ‘making something extra for the world’ (quoted in Button 2003, p.172).</p>
<p>Creed’s work emerges from an ongoing series of investigations into commonplace phenomena. His subtle interventions reintroduce us to elements of the everyday. Creed’s choice and use of materials – plain A4 sheets of paper, blu-tack, masking tape, party balloons, simple or ‘unpoetic’ language as text or as lyrics to songs – is a celebration of the ordinary, a spotlight on the ambiguity of everyday ‘stuff’.</p>
<p>
<b>Further reading   </b>
<br/>
<i>Martin Creed</i>, exhibition catalogue, Ikon, Birmingham 2008, p.44.</p>
<p>Helen Delaney<br/>May 2010</p>
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Summary
2018-03-13T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
abstraction colour emotions, concepts and ideas formal qualities non-representational repetition sequence