Joe Tilson

Biography

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Joe Tilson is considered one of the most significant representatives of British Pop Art, a movement that shaped the London art scene in the 1960s. As part of this movement, which also included renowned artists such as Richard Hamilton, Peter Blake, and Allen Jones, Tilson exhibited as early as 1962 at the London gallery Marlborough Fine Art. In 1964 he participated in the XXXII Venice Biennale — commonly referred to as the “Pop Art Biennale” — where he attracted considerable attention alongside other participants such as the American artists Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Jim Dine, and Claes Oldenburg.

However, the technological developments enthusiastically embraced by many of his contemporaries soon came into conflict with Tilson’s deepest artistic and personal convictions. From the 1970s onwards, he gradually distanced himself from Pop Art in order to pursue his own artistic path, characterized by an intense creative engagement with existential, mythological, and esoteric themes.

Italy — especially Venice and Tuscany — provided further decisive impulses for his work of the 1990s and 2000s. In particular, the landscapes surrounding Siena inspired the series known as Crete Senesi. Also inspired by Italy, though this time more by architecture than by the natural landscape, are his works of the 2000s. With the cycles The Stones of Venice and Postcards from Venice, the British artist expresses his deep affection for the “Serenissima.”

Joe Tilson died in London in 2023 at the age of 95.

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1928: Born in London, August 24.

1944-46: Works as a carpenter and joiner.

1946-49: Serves in the R. A. F. (Royal Air Force).

1949-52: Studies at the St. Martin’s School of Art, London; becomes member of the I.C.A. (Institute of Contemporary Arts) in Dover Street where he later meets Richard Hamilton, Eduardo Paolozzi and Reyner Banham.

1952-55: Continues his studies at the Royal College of Art London.

1955: Receives the Rome Prize and a scholarship in Rome, meets Joslyn Morton, who studies with Marino Marini at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan, they get married the year after in Venice.

1955-57: Works in Italy and Spain.

1958-63: Teaches at St. Martin’s School of Art.

1962-63: Visiting lecturer at Slade School of Art, University of London and King’s College, University of Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne.

1964: Designs the British Section of the Triennale of Milan and exhibits at the British Pavilion of the XXXII Venice Biennale, the famous Pop Art Biennale that included Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Jim Dine and Claes Oldenburg.

1966: Teaches at the School of Visual Arts, New York.

1966-71: Becomes member of the Art Panel, Arts Council of Great Britain.

1970: Dissatisfied with the technological and industrial ‘progress’ of the consumer society he ends his Pop Art years and starts Alchera, a series of works based on a circular mnemonic device relating to the four cardinal pints, the four elements, the four seasons, the lunar months, labyrinth ladders, words and symbols.

1971: The stylistic change leads him to move to Christian Malford, Wiltshire and an old farmhouse in the mountains of Tuscany; first retrospective exhibition at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen Rotterdam.

1972: Visiting lecturer at the Staatliche Hochschule für Bildendende Künste in Hamburg.

1979: Retrospective exhibition of graphics at Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada.

1985: Is elected associate of the Royal Academy of Arts, London.

1996: Paints the banner for the Palio of 1996, receives the Grand Prix d’Honneur at the Biennal of Ljublijana.

From 1997 until 2022:Several retrospective exhibitions all over the world.

On November 9th 2023, in London, Joe Tilson passed away aged 95.