An Oak Tree

An Oak Tree is a work of art created by Michael Craig-Martin in 1973, and is now exhibited with the accompanying text, originally issued as a leaflet.

[2] Craig-Martin has stressed that the components should maintain a pristine appearance and in the event of deterioration, the brackets should be resprayed and the glass and shelf even replaced.

[3] Part of An Oak Tree's inspiration was Craig-Martin attempting to figure out what "the essence of a work of art" was, which he decided was "suspension of disbelief".

[3] An Oak Tree was first shown in an exhibition of Craig-Martin's work at the Rowan Gallery, off Bond Street, London, in 1974.

[3][11] Many visitors assumed that Craig-Martin was playing the ultimate con trick, as there seemed no evidence of work on display in the white-walled gallery.

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.

"[20] 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.

[12] 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 sent instead a bucketful of water?

"[24] Brian Sewell asked why "the miracle" was "a work of art fit only for a gallery, and not some thaumaturgical object venerated in a church?

"[25] Michael Daley wrote that the work was "not a hard-won, skilful depiction of a glass and a shelf" and that for twenty years "instead of ridiculing the self-deluding, pretentious offerings of Craig-Martin and his like, critics fawned and eulogised.

[28] An Oak Tree is quoted as an important influence in Ramsey Dukes' article Four Glasses of Water first published in The Journal for the Academic Study of Magic Issue 2, 2004.