MICHAEL Craig-Martin’s Alphabet screen prints are on show in a Hayward Touring Exhibition at York College until October 7.

He was a key figure for the YBA (Young British Artist) generation of artists, teaching many of them in his capacity as professor at Goldsmiths College of Art.

For his Alphabet series, he has produced 26 screen prints in which the letters of the alphabet are overlaid with everyday objects such as a book, a glass of water or an umbrella, his visually arresting images being set against a background of vivid monochrome colours.

Throughout his career, Dubliner Craig-Martin has explored the iconography of utilitarian and designer objects.

In Alphabet, a series created in his signature style, he plays with the idea of the ABC children’s primer, so instead of a direct “A is for Apple”, “B is for Ball”, the relationship between the letter and image is more ambiguous and requires guesswork. For example, “C” shows a knife, perhaps representing the word “cut”.

Over the past decade, Craig-Martin’s practice has embraced digital technology as a tool for working on ideas and compositions. Using a computer to create an image bank of everyday objects, he has employed these in large-scale wall drawings and acrylic paintings on canvas and drawn upon this resource for Alphabet, which was produced with traditional screen-printing methods.

Craig-Martin was born in Dublin in 1941 and educated in the United States, where he studied at Yale University under Josef Albers. Upon returning to Europe in the mid-1960s, he became a key figure in the first generation of British conceptual artists, and as a tutor at Goldsmith’s College from 1974 to 1988 and professor from 1994 to 2000, he had a significant influence on two generations of young British artistic talent.

The Alphabet series was published by the Alan Cristea Gallery in London in 2007. The exhibition at York College, Sim Balk Lane, Tadcaster Road, York, is open from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday; admission is free.