Joe Tilson - part 1

This is the first part of a two-part post on English pop artist Joe Tilson. Tilson was born in London in 1928. From 1944 to 1946 he worked as a carpenter and cabinet-maker before serving in the R.A.F between 1946 and 1949. After leaving military service, he studied at St. Martin's School of Art (1949 to 1952) and then at the Royal College of Art, London (1952 to 1955) where his contemporaries included Peter Blake and Bridget Riley. He received the Rome Prize, taking him to live in Italy in 1955. He returned to London in 1957, and from 1958 to 1963 he taught at St Martin's School of Art, and subsequently at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London and The School of Visual Arts, New York.

Tilson’s first one-man show was at the Marlborough Gallery in 1962, followed by an exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool in 1963. He represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 1964, and has had retrospectives at the Tate Gallery in 1978, the Art Museum, Ljubljana, in 1987, and in the Sackler Galleries, Royal Academy (Joe Tilson: Pop to Present), in 2002. He was awarded the Gulbenkian Foundation Prize in 1960, the Gold Medal at the San Marino Biennale in 1963, and the Grand Prix d’Honneur, Biennale de la Gravure, Ljubljana, in 1985. Tilson became a Royal Academician in 1991.

One of the founding figures of British Pop art in the early 1960's, Tilson was an enthusiastic proponent of the hedonism, optimism and political activism that were such striking characteristics of that decade. His work embraced advances in technology, reflected the ever-increasing power of mass media and exposed changing attitudes towards sexual liberation. In the 1970's he moved to Italy and the subject matter of his work radically changed to reflect this new shift, with a new emphasis on the five elements and Greek and Roman mythology.

Tilson has been a lifelong dedicated printmaker and has gained a reputation as one of Britain's foremost artists producing prints, multiples, constructions, paintings and reliefs. His work is held in collections internationally including the Tate Gallery London, MoMA New York, and the Stedelijk Amsterdam.

In this first part I'm looking at one of Tilson's recurring themes in his work - Transparencies:

1967 Transparency Clip-o-Matic Lips

1967 Transparency, Empire State Building 
screenprint

1967-68 Transparency Clip-o-Matic Lips 
screenprint

1968 Astronaut Seat E 
screenprint

1968 Made in Italy 
screenprint

1968 The Software Chart 
mixed media

1968 Transparency I, Yuri Gagarin 12 April 1961

1968 Transparency, Che Guevara D 
mixed media

1969 Transparecy, Clip-o-Matic Eye 
screenprint

1969 Transparency Clip-o-Matic Eye 
screenprint

1969 Transparency, Vellegrande Bolivia, October 10th 
screenprint

1969 Transparency. the Five Senses, Taste 
screenprint on perspex

1971 Snapshot 
screenprint

1971 Transparency, Clip-o-Matic Breast