Making a Mark: Joe Tilson

Podcast

Episode 6

Joe Tilson: One of Britain's most important living artists, a founding figure of British Pop Art and ground-breaking printmaker

The sixth episode of Making a Mark explores the life and work of one of Britain’s most important living artists, Joe Tilson (1928 - 2023), and the continued centrality of printmaking to his practice.

Recorded on the eve of his 94th birthday, we meet Tilson, a lifelong dedicated and subversive printmaker, in his London studio to discuss the preoccupations, inspirations, philosophy, and methods, that have been the focus of his graphic works for over half a century. From prints made in the 1960s by Tilson, then an exponent of British Pop Art, to new hand-coloured editions, inspired by cultural history, we explore how Tilson continues to defy and challenge the rule book of printmaking.

Contributors include gallery founder and director Alan Cristea, who has worked with Tilson since 1969; interior designer, founder and creative director of Firmdale Hotels, Kit Kemp, who collects Tilson’s prints and art historian, writer and curator Marco Livingstone, who has authored a new biography about Tilson, published by Lund Humphries and launching in May 2023.

Presented by writer and critic, Charlotte Mullins.

Recorded August 2022.