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WILLIAM TILLYER’s ‘season’ at Bernard Jacobson Gallery in London, an event comprising four separate exhibitions (the Prints, a Retrospective, the Watercolours and finally New Work) is an unprecedented display to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the meeting of the two men when Tillyer walked into Bernard Jacobson’s newly opened gallery in Mayfair with a portfolio of prints under his arm. Tillyer is now viewed as one of the most consistently challenging British artists of recent history. The parallel exhibition at Annandale is his third solo show here and concentrates on the graphic work ranging from 1972 – 2010. There is also a careful selection of painted constructions and some paintings, including a work done in Melbourne in 1981.

Tillyer’s main subject matter is the English landscape but he is also inspired by architecture and travel. His past visits here yielded the ‘Murcutt’ series of watercolours influenced by the Australian light and the architecture of Glenn Murcutt. The artist is versatile and innovative and often well ahead of his time when it comes to painting and printmaking. Tillyer is, to borrow the French phrase ‘un homme qui pense’ – a man who thinks – and any study of his work may evoke in the viewer a similar disposition and intellectual response. He has an extraordinary knowledge of art history from the renaissance through modernism as well as a firm grasp on his place in the continuum. This gives is a rigour and clarity to the work that allows Tillyer to venture with ease and confidence into new territory again and again. He is an artist whose contribution to art history will likely be discussed long into the future for innovations and influence. It is almost unbelievable how some of the graphic work from the early 1970’s resonates as though done yesterday – none of the edge or contemporary feel looks dated. The works evoke an emotional response in the viewer that is both celebratory and profound. Daring contrasts of expressionistic brush strokes laid over minimal armatures or constructions provide us with a sense of being both anchored to something solid as well as soaring off into the unknown – a sense of precipice.

WILLIAM TILLYER has participated in at least 75 solo exhibitions since 1962. These include shows with Rex Irwin, Roslyn Oxley and Melbourne University Gallery (1982) and Annandale Galleries in 1997 & 2002. Numerous books and catalogues have been published including; ‘Against the Grain’ by famed Art historian Norbert Lynton and the recently published ‘Watercolours’ a 271-page tome with text by John Yau with interviews with the artist. His work is in major museum, corporate and private collections in the USA, UK, Europe and Australia including MOMA New York, The Tate Gallery, Art Gallery WA and the Melbourne University collection. This is his third solo show at Annandale Galleries.