Arise Sir Michael: knighthood for Goldsmiths teacher and artist

Artist and influential former Goldsmiths tutor Michael Craig-Martin was this week awarded a knighthood at Buckingham Palace.

Sir Michael said collecting his honour from Prince William was "very special" - before offering to loan the royals some of his works should they have a space. 

Asked if he would like to see his work hanging in the Palace, Sir Michael replied: "I would be happy to lend them something. 

"Say if something was being restored and they had a gap, I could offer to lend a work... I'd let them choose which one.”

The knighthood followed a CBE awarded in 2000 for services to art.

Sir Michael was an influential teacher at Goldsmiths from 1973 until 1988 and it was under his guidance that the Young British Artists (YBAs) rose to prominence.

Speaking three years ago about the YBAs, Goldsmiths honorand Sir Michael said: "I became aware that I was seeing an exceptional number of very, very interesting people.

"I tried to mix the students which generated a kind of dialogue amongst them. They were getting used to looking at each other’s work in depth and also being jealous of each other and being competitive in the best possible way. 

"If I did a seminar and Sarah Lucas did something fantastic, then Gary Hume was pissed off because she got all the attention and he wanted it – it’s a normal human thing, but it had an amazing effect.

"One of the things that was incredible good fortune for all of them was Damien [Hirst] doing Freeze. They were all doing diverse things but Freeze gave them a group identity. Then subsequently, everything that happened to one of them, helped all the others."

Sir Michael's work as an artist is world-renowned. 

His best known works include An oak tree of 1973, in which he claimed to have changed a glass of water into an oak tree; his large-scale black and white wall drawings; and his intensely coloured paintings, installations, and commissions, including the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg, the Laban Dance Centre just over a mile from Goldsmiths in Deptford and, staying in south London, the DLR station at Woolwich Arsenal.