If your first thought when looking at Oak Tree is, “Is this is a joke? There has to be more to it than this,” don’t worry, you are right, there is more, and there isn’t. It’s complicated.

You see, Oak Tree is the definitive piece of art made by Michael Craig-Martin, and Michael Craig-Martin is the definitive conceptual artist of Britain. So the work is intentionally weird. The word the art world uses is “restrained,” but it really is a serious piece of art, and the artist is a serious artist. In fact, Michael was knighted in 2016 for his “services to art,” for the Queen’s Birthday no less.

The absolute lack of physical effort put into the piece might have you thinking that I have gone insane, and it is true that the work does not require the same kind of skill as, say, Las Meninas, or the dramatics of Medusa, after Caravaggio, but actually this is also part of its own unique genius. Naturally, the near insulting quality of the piece prompts discussion of Oak Tree, during which Michael Craig-Martin will fervently argue that it is in fact what he claims it is. Not only will he argue that the glass of water is an oak tree, but that he transmuted it into an oak tree himself. It is this sort of ruthless denial of acknowledging what is right before him that is the center of the work. In fact, if you went to see this elevated glass of water in person, you would notice on a plaque right next to it a dialogue between Michael Craig-Martin and a critic having this exact argument. In real life, Michael has trying been keep up this charade for about the last forty-five years, in a way turning his piece into some kind of performance art.

Of course the key word here is “try," as Michael Craig-Martin is not actually a magician of any sort and his bold claims have created some unique complications. A great example being the one time that Australia barred him from entrance into the country because he declared Oak Tree as a piece of “vegetation.” Subsequently he had to argue to immigration officials the opposite of what he had been arguing to critics for the past many years.