Tilson, Joe profile

Joe Tilson belongs to the generation of British artists "including Frank Auerbach, Peter Blake and David Hockney" who studied at the Royal College of Art in the 1950s. Originally associated with the British Pop Art movement in the early 1960s, Joe's early work combined mass-market imagery with political messages. In the 1970s, prompted by his dissatisfaction with consumer society and disenchantment with mechanical methods of production, he began making handmade constructions from wood and metal. In the 1980s, Joe returned to painting on canvas, inspired by the landscape surrounding his studio in the hills near Cortona. Joe's work explores the enduring themes of sex, birth and death and he employs striking, vibrant colour, most recently combining a single image "such as a bird or a butterfly" in conjunction with text

Examples of work