Joe Tilson initially worked as a carpenter and joiner from 1944 - 46, before carrying out his National Service in the RAF until 1949.  He went on to study at St Martin's School of Art, London from 1949 - 52 and at the Royal College of Art, London from 1952 - 55 where he received the Rome Prize, taking him to live in Italy in 1955.  He returned to London in 1957, and from 1958 - 63 he taught at St Martin's School of Art, and subsequently at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, Kings College, Newcastle upon Tyne, The School of Visual Arts, New York and the Hochschule fur Bildende Kunste, Hamburg.   Tilson’s fist one-man shows were held at the Marlborough Gallery, London in 1962 and at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool in 1963.  In 1977 he joined the Waddington Galleries and is at present presented by Theo Waddington Fine Art, the Alan Cristea Gallery and by Giò Maconi Galleries.  His work first gained international exposure at the XXXII Venice Biennale, leading to his fist retrospective at the Boyman’s Museum, Rotterdam in 1964.  Further retrospective exhibitions were held at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1979 and at the Anolfini Gallery, Bristol in 1984.  He has continued to exhibit regularly in solo shows throughout the world and had a major retrospective, ‘Joe Tilson: Pop to Present’ in 2002.  Among Tilson’s awards are the Gulbenkian Foundation Prize in 1960 and the Grand Prix d’Honneur, Biennale of Ljubljana in 1996, the year in which he was invited to paint the banner for the Palio, Siena.  He was elected Royal Academician in 1991 (AA 1985) and lives and works in London and Cortona, Tuscany. 

Fire Wheel
Wooden multiple
1987
55x57
published in Italy
edition of 50
£950

Secret
2003
38 x 36 x 5
Multiple
£950

Key
2003
33 x 41 x 12
Multiple
£950

Air Mantra
1979
Etching
edition of 75
80x100
£1,000
SOLD

Rank 2
1967
Screenprint
Artists proof
56 x 55
£600
SOLD