Martin Creed

Work No. 299

This photograph Work No. 299, of Martin Creed himself, was used as the invitation card for a fundraising auction of works on paper at Christie’s South Kensington in support of Camden Arts Centre’s first year in a refurbished building in 2005. His broad smile, on the verge of laughter, encourages reciprocity on behalf of the onlooker. This could be said to be a typical tactic in Creed’s work as it is so infused with humor and irony. To him, art is like a game, or certainly very much a part of banal reality. Within the genre of self-portraits, this subverts the usual tradition of images of the artist as creator. Creed often jokes or questions whether the artwork (or in this case the persona of the artist) has any value or exists. Standing in front of a very British brick wall which likely carries art historical connections and puns, Creed seems to mock or certainly stand amazed at his own commercial success. “I want to make things. I’m not sure why, but I think it’s got something to do with other people. I think I want to try to communicate with other people, because I want to say ‘hullo’, because I want to express myself, and because I want to be loved.”