Martin Creed
Three Toasts and Some Broccoli
‘If you are upset and someone speaks to you to try to help you, even if the words are empty because no one knows what is going to happen in the future, it can still feel like a comfort.’
Three Toasts and Some Broccoli
Martin Creed has become known for hugely varied work, which is by turns uncompromising, entertaining, shocking and beautiful. Our online presentation features selected paintings, sculptures, tapestry, video and music, coinciding with the unveiling of a new neon, ‘Work No. 3435 EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT’, at Braemar Castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
A small-scale edition of this multicolored neon is now available exclusively to purchase online.
Work No. 3439
EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT
2020 White neon Edition of 20 + 4 AP 7.5 x 206.5 cm / 3 x 81 ¼ in
The works featured in the online presentation include a selection of brightly colored stack paintings, broccoli paintings, horizontal striped tapestries and toast sculptures, two with peanut butter and one without.
Awarded the Turner Prize in 2001 for ‘Work 227: The lights going on and off’, Creed’s work takes many forms including music, talks and theatrical presentations. In ‘Work No. 1429, You’re the one for me’, Creed transports us to summer at the beach.
Series, sequences, variation and rhythm are often present in Creed’s work. Through very minimal interventions which treat all the elements equally, in a way letting materials speak for themselves. His stack paintings are achieved by using a set of flat brushes reducing in breadth from bottom to top to create pyramid shapes in multiple variations.
Creed makes no separation between his work and everyday life, between art galleries and the outside world. He is vegetarian and this can be seen in many of his works, including the broccoli bought at his local supermarket to create his broccoli paintings and the peanut butter toast sculptures, drawing on his time at a Buddhist monastery watching monks devour jars of peanut butter slathered on toast.
The phrase ‘Everything is going to be alright’ has been used by the artist in a series of large-scale neon works since 1999 and draws on the comforting words Creed was offered by a friend: ‘No one can really tell you everything is going to be alright, but despite that, many times in my life I have been very comforted by people saying something like that to me.’
Martin Creed, Work No. 790: EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT, 2017. Installation view, MOCAD, Detroit MI
‘Creed is a social artist; the true magic of his work lies in the way it interacts with people and places.’
Jones, Jonathan, ‘Martin Creed’s stairway to heaven’, in: www.theguardian.co.uk, London/UK, 1 August 2011, ill. (on Work No. 1059)
Inquire about other works by Martin Creed
Martin CreedThree Toasts and Some Broccoli
Martin Creed’s new neon in multiple colors was installed at the entrance of Braemar Castle on 8 August 2020. A version of the same work has been on view in Scotland since 2012 on the facade of the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh.
–
Under the umbrella of Hauser & Wirth’s new global philanthropic and charitable initiative #artforbetter, we are donating 10% of gross profits from sales of all works in our online exhibitions to the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for the World Health Organization.
All images © Martin Creed