Joe Tilson

Alan Cristea Gallery is holding a major exhibition of Joe Tilson's printed works. The exhibition will see Tilson's ground - breaking screenprints and collages from the sixties hang alongside his most recent etchings and aquatints, as well as unique works, revealing a continuum in the artists' preoccupations, inspirations, motifs and media that has spanned almost half a century of activity, between 1963 and 2009.

 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 began to spend more and more time in Italy and the subject matter of his work radically changed to reflect this shift, with a new emphasis on the five elements and Greek and Roman mythology, and later, to reflect his passion for Venice and Cortona, where he now lives and works for part of the year.

A lifelong dedicated and subversive printmaker, his work is held in collections internationally including the Tate Gallery, London, MoMA, New York and the Stedelijk, Amsterdam. A Royal Academician, his artistic career was celebrated at the Royal Academy in a retrospective exhibition in 2002.

The exhibition coincides with the launch of a new monograph, TILSON - The Printed Works 1963 - 2009.

Compiled and written by Enzo di Martino, and published by Papiro Arte, Editalia and the Bugno Gallery, Venice, the book it is a celebration of the way in which Tilson's printmaking has infiltrated and informed every aspect of his creative output over the past 46 years.

A set of three limited edition prints have been made to accompany the book.